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DRAKE,  NELSON  AND  NAPOLEON 


WORKS  BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

WINDJAMMERS  AND  SEA  TRAMPS 

SEA  YARNS  (Formerly  entitled  "The 
Shellback's  Progress  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century") 

LOOKING  SEAWARD  AGAIN 

THE  TRAGEDY  OF  ST.  HELENA 

CHARACTER  SKETCHES 


DRAKE,    NELSON 
AND    NAPOLEON 


BY 

SIR  WALTER   RUNCIMAN,  Bart. 


Illustrated 


Go  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Ubc   Knickerbocker   press 
1920 


/tN 


DEDICATORY  LETTER   TO 
SIR  JAMES    KNOTT 

My  dear  Sir  James: 

We  have  travelled  far  since  those  early  days 
when  you  and  I,  who  are  of  totally  different  tastes 
and  temperament,  first  met  and  became  friends. 
I  was  attracted  by  your  wide  knowledge,  versatile 
vigour  of  mind,  and  engaging  personality,  which 
subsequent  years  have  not  diminished.  You  were 
strenuously  engaged  at  that  time  in  breaking  down 
the  weevily  traditions  of  a  bygone  age,  and  help- 
ing to  create  a  new  era  in  the  art  of  steamship 
management,  and,  at  the  same  time,  studying  for 
the  Bar;  and  were  I  writing  a  biography  of  you,  I 
would  have  to  include  your  interesting  travels  in 
distant  lands  in  quest  of  business  and  organizing 
it.  That  must  be  left  for  another  occasion,  when 
the  vast  results  to  the  commercial  life  of  the 
country  to  which  you  contributed  may  be  fittingly 
told. 

At  the  present  time  my  vision  recalls  our  joyous 
yachting  cruises  on  the  Clyde,  when  poor  Lead- 
bitter  added  to  the  charm  that  stays.  Perhaps 
best  of  all  were  the  golden  days  when  we  habitu- 
ally took  our  week-end  strolls  together  by  the 


2081399 


iv  Dedicatory  Letter 

edge  of  the  inspiriting  splendour  of  the  blue  North 
Sea,  strolls  which  are  hallowed  by  many  memories, 
and  gave  me  an  opportunity  of  listening  to  your 
vehement  flashes  of  human  sympathies,  which  are 
so  widely  known  now.  It  is  my  high  appreciation 
of  those  tender  gifts  and  of  your  personal  worth, 
together  with  the  many  acts  of  kindness  and  con- 
sideration shown  to  me  when  I  have  been  your 
guest,  that  gives  me  the  desire  to  inscribe  this  book 
to  you  and  Lady  Knott,  and  to  the  memory  of 
your  gallant  sons,  Major  Leadbitter  Knott,  D.S.O., 
who  was  killed  while  leading  his  battalion  in  a 
terrific  engagement  in  Flanders,  and  Captain 
Basil  Knott,  who  fell  so  tragically  a  few  months 
previously  at  his  brother's  side. 

With  every  sentiment  of  esteem, 

I  am,  dear  Sir  James, 

Ever  yours  sincerely, 
Walter  Runciman. 

March,  19 19. 


PREFACE 

This  book  has  evolved  from  another  which  I  had 
for  years  been  urged  to  write  by  personal  friends. 
I  had  chatted  occasionally  about  my  own  voyages, 
related  incidents  concerning  them  and  the  coun- 
tries and  places  I  had  visited,  the  ships  I  had  sailed 
in,  the  men  I  had  sailed  with,  and  the  sailors  of 
that  period.  It  is  one  thing  to  tell  sea-tales  in  a 
cosy  room  and  to  enjoy  living  again  for  a  brief 
time  in  the  days  that  are  gone;  but  it  is  another 
matter  when  one  is  asked  to  put  the  stories  into 
book  form.  Needless  to  say  for  a  long  time  I 
shrank  from  undertaking  the  task,  but  was  ulti- 
mately prevailed  upon  to  do  so.  The  book  was 
commenced  and  was  well  advanced,  and,  as  I 
could  not  depict  the  sailors  of  my  own  period  with- 
out dealing — as  I  thought  at  the  time — briefly 
with  the  race  of  men  called  buccaneers  who  were 
really  the  creators  of  the  British  mercantile  marine 
and  navy,  who  lived  centuries  before  my  genera- 
tion, I  was  obliged  to  deal  with  some  of  them  such 
as  Hawkins,  Drake,  Frobisher,  Dampier,  Alexander 
Selkirk  of  Robinson  Crusoe  fame,  and  others  who 
combined  piracy  with  commerce  and  sailorism. 
After  I  had  written  all  I  thought  necessary  about 


VI 


Preface 


the  three  former,  I  instinctively  slipped  on  to 
Nelson  as  the  greatest  sea  personality  of  the  be- 
ginning of  the  last  century.  I  found  the  subject 
so  engrossing  that  I  could  not  centre  my  thoughts 
on  any  other,  so  determined  to  continue  my  narra- 
tive, which  is  not,  and  never  was  intended  to  be,  a 
life  of  Nelson.  Perhaps  it  may  be  properly  termed 
fragmentary  thoughts  and  jottings  concerning  the 
life  of  an  extraordinary  human  force,  written  at 
intervals  when  I  had  leisure  from  an  otherwise 
busy  life. 

Even  if  I  had  thought  it  desirable,  it  was  hardly 
possible  to  write  about  Nelson  without  also  deal- 
ing with  Britain's  great  adversary  and  Nelson's 
distracted  opinion  of  him. 

It  would  be  futile  to  attempt  to  draw  a  compari- 
son between  the  two  men.  The  one  was  a  colossal 
human  genius,  and  the  other,  extraordinary  in  the 
art  of  his  profession,  was  entirely  without  the 
faculty  of  understanding  or  appreciating  the  dis- 
tinguished man  he  flippantly  raged  at  from  his 
quarterdeck. 

But  be  that  as  it  may,  Nelson's  terrific  aversion 
to  and  explosions  against  the  French  and  Napoleon, 
in  whose  history  I  had  been  absorbed  for  many 
years,  seem  to  me  to  be  the  deliberate  outpouring 
of  a  mind  governed  by  feeling  rather  than  by  know- 
ledge as  to  the  real  cause  of  the  wars  and  of  how 
we  came  to  be  involved  and  continue  in  them. 
Nor  does  he  ever  show  that  he  had  any  clear  con- 
ception of  the  history  of  Napoleon's    advent  as 


Preface  vii 

the  ruler  of  the  people  with  whom  we  were  at 
war. 

I  have  given  this  book  the  title  of  Drake ,  Nelson, 
and  Napoleon,  because  it  seemed  to  me  necessary 
to  bring  in  Drake,  the  prototype,  and  Napoleon, 
the  antagonist  of  Nelson. 

Drake's  influence  bore  fruit  in  what  is  known 
as  the  Fleet  Tradition,  which  culminated  in  the 
"Nelson  touch."  No  excuse  is  needed,  therefore, 
for  writing  a  chapter  which  shows  how  little  the 
seaman's  character  has  changed  in  essentials  since 
that  time.  To-day,  our  sailors  have  the  same 
simple  direct  force  which  characterized  the  Eliza- 
bethan seamen  and  those  of  Nelsonian  times. 

Of  Napoleon  I  have  written  fully  in  my  book 
The  Tragedy  of  St.  Helena,  and  have  contented 
myself  here  with  pointing  out  how  the  crass  stu- 
pidity and  blind  prejudice  of  his  opponents  have 
helped  largely  to  bring  about  the  World  War  of 
our  own  times.  I  have  also  endeavoured  to  con- 
trast the  statesmanlike  attitude  of  Napoleon  with 
the  short-sighted  policy  of  England's  politicians 
and  their  allies  at  that  time. 

Having  planned  the  book  on  such  lines,  it  in- 
evitably follows  that  Nelson  must  occupy  a  larger 
space  in  it  than  either  Drake  or  Napoleon,  but 
for  that  I  offer  no  apology. 

W.   R. 

March,  1919. 

The  Author's  Preface  was  written  after  the  close  of  the  War,  but  a 
large  portion  of  the  book  was  completed  during  the  campaigns  of  1917 
and  1918. — Publishers. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Dedicatory  Letter iii 

Preface        v 

Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition  i 

Nelson  and  his  Circle       .....  49 

Trafalgar,  Oct.  21,  1805  ....     269 

(a)  British  Order  of  Battle 

(b)  A  List  of  the  Combined  Fleet  of  France  and 

Spain 

Napoleon  and  his  Connection  with  the  World 
War 275 

Sea  Songs 339 

Appendix:    Some    Incidents    of    Nelson's    Life 
(Chronologically  Arranged)  .         .         .     365 

Index 371 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PACK 

Line  of  Battle  Ship  (early  Eighteenth  Century) 

Frontispiece 

Drake         ....         ....        4 

Nelson        ........       52 

Lady  Hamilton  as  "Sibyl"  ....       62 

Captain  Hardy  (of  the  "Victory")    .         .         .110 

"Princess   Charlotte" — Frigate    (early    Nine- 
teenth Century) 182 

H.    M.    S.    "Victory"    Going   into    Battle    at 
Trafalgar 234 

Admiral  Collingwood 242 

The  Emperor  Napoleon  After  his  Accession  .     276 


XI 


DRAKE 

AND  THE  FLEET  TRADITION 


DRAKE  AND  THE  FLEET  TRADITION 

I 

The  great  sailors  of  the  Elizabethan  era — Hawkins, 
Drake,  Frobisher,  Howard,  Davis,  and  Sir  Hum- 
phrey Gilbert — were  the  prototypes  of  the  sailors 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  They  discovered  new 
lands,  opened  up  new  avenues  of  commerce,  and 
combined  these  legitimate  forms  of  enterprise 
with  others  which  at  this  date  would  be  regarded 
as  rank  piracy.  Since,  however,  they  believed 
themselves  to  be  the  ambassadors  of  God,  they  did 
everything  in  His  name,  whether  it  were  the  seiz- 
ing of  Spanish  treasure  or  the  annexing  of  new 
worlds  by  fair  means  or  foul,  believing  quite  sin- 
cerely in  the  sanctity  of  what  they  did  with  a 
seriousness  and  faith  which  now  appear  almost 
comic. 

For  many  years  the  authorities  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion had  plundered  goods  and  put  to  death  English 
seamen  and  merchants,  and  Spanish  Philip,  when 
remonstrated  with,  shrugged  his  shoulders  and 
repudiated  the  responsibility  by  saying  that  he 
had  no  power  over  the  "Holy  House."     Drake 

3 


4         Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

retaliated  by  taking  possession  of  and  bringing  to 
England  a  million  and  a  half  of  Spanish  treasure 
while  the  two  countries  were  not  at  war.  It  is 
said  that  when  Drake  laid  hands  on  the  bullion 
at  Panama  he  sent  a  message  to  the  Viceroy  that 
he  must  now  learn  not  to  interfere  with  the  prop- 
erties of  English  subjects,  and  that  if  four  English 
sailors  who  were  prisoners  in  Mexico  were  ill- 
treated  he  would  execute  two  thousand  Spaniards 
and  send  him  their  heads.  Drake  never  wasted 
thought  about  reprisals  or  made  frothy  apologetic 
speeches  as  to  what  would  happen  to  those  with 
whom  he  was  at  religious  war  if  they  molested  his 
fellow-countrymen.  He  met  atrocity  with  atrocity. 
He  believed  it  to  be  his  mission  to  avenge  the 
burning  of  British  seamen  and  the  Spanish  and 
Popish  attempts  on  the  life  of  his  virgin  sovereign. 
That  he  knew  her  to  be  an  audacious  flirt,  an 
insufferable  miser,  and  an  incurable  political  in- 
triguer whose  tortuous  moves  had  to  be  watched 
as  vigilantly  as  Philip's  assassins  and  English 
traitors,  is  apparent  from  reliable  records.  His 
mind  was  saturated  with  the  belief  in  his  own  high 
destiny,  as  the  chosen  instrument  to  break  the 
Spanish  power  in  Europe.  He  was  insensible  to 
fear,  and  knew  how  to  make  other  people  fear  and 
obey  him.  He  was  not  only  an  invincible  crusader, 
but  one  of  those  rare  personalities  who  have  the 
power  of  infusing  into  their  comrades  their  own 
courage  and  enthusiasm.  The  Spanish  said  he  was 
"a  magician  who  had  sold  his  soul  to  the  Devil. " 


DRAKE. 

A   painting  based  on  a  contemporaneous  miniature. 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition        5 

The  Spanish  sailors  and  Philip  himself,  together 
with  his  nobles,  were  terror-stricken  at  the  mention 
of  his  name.  He  was  to  them  an  invincible  dragon. 
Santa  Cruz  warned  his  compatriots  that  the  here- 
tics "had  teeth,  and  could  use  them."  Here  is 
another  instance,  selected  from  many,  of  the 
fanatical  superstitions  concerning  Drake's  irre- 
sistible power.  Medina  Sidonia  had  deserted 
the  Andalusian  squadron.  Drake  came  across 
the  flagship.  Her  commander  said  he  was  Don 
Pedro  de  Valdes,  and  could  surrender  only  on 
honourable  terms.  The  English  commander  re- 
plied, "I  am  Drake,  and  have  no  time  to  parley. 
Don  Pedro  must  surrender  or  fight. "  So  Don 
Pedro  surrendered  to  the  gallant  captain  of  the 
Revenge,  and  lavished  him  with  praise,  evidently 
glad  to  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  so  famous  and 
generous  a  foe.  Drake  is  said  to  have  treated  his 
captive  with  elaborate  generosity,  while  his  crew 
commandeered  all  the  vast  treasure.  He  then 
sent  the  galleon  into  Dartmouth  Harbour,  and 
set  off  with  his  prisoners  to  chase  Medina  Sidonia. 
In  the  whole  range  of  Drake's  adventurous 
career  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  evidence 
of  his  having  been  possessed  with  the  idea  of  super- 
natural assistance,  though  if  perchance  he  missed 
any  of  Philip's  treasure-ships  he  complacently 
reported  "the  reason"  to  those  in  authority  as 
"being  best  known  to  God,"  and  there  the  incident 
ended.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Deity  was  no 
mystery  to  him.     His  belief  in  a  Supreme  Power 


6        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

was  real,  and  that  he  worked  in  harmony  with  It 
he  never  doubted.  When  he  came  across  anything 
on  land  or  sea  which  he  thought  should  be  appro- 
priated for  the  benefit  of  his  Queen  and  country, 
or  for  himself  and  those  who  were  associated 
with  him  in  his  piratical  enterprises,  nothing  was 
allowed  to  stand  in  his  way,  and,  generally  speak- 
ing, he  paralysed  all  resistance  to  his  arms  into 
submission  by  an  inexorable  will  and  genius. 
The  parsimonious  Elizabeth  was  always  slyly 
willing  to  receive  the  proceeds  of  his  dashing  deeds, 
but  never  unduly  generous  in  fixing  his  share  of 
them.  She  allowed  her  ships  to  lie  rotting  when 
they  should  have  been  kept  in  sound  and  efficient 
condition,  and  her  sailors  to  starve  in  the  streets 
and  seaports.  Never  a  care  was  bestowed  on  these 
poor  fellows  to  whom  she  owed  so  much.  Drake 
and  Hawkins,  on  the  other  hand,  saw  the  national 
danger,  and  founded  a  war  fund  called  the  "Chat- 
ham Chest ";  and,  after  great  pressure,  the  Queen 
granted  £20,000  and  the  loan  of  six  battle-ships  to 
the  Syndicate.  Happily  the  commercial  people 
gave  freely,  as  they  always  do.  What  trouble 
these  matchless  patriots  had  to  overcome!  In- 
trigue, treason,  religious  fanaticism,  begrudging 
of  supplies,  the  constant  shortage  of  stores  and 
provisions  at  every  critical  state  of  a  crisis,  the 
contradictory  instructions  from  the  exasperating 
Tudor  Queen:  the  fleet  kept  in  port  until  the 
chances  of  an  easy  victory  over  England's  bitterest 
foes  had  passed  away!     But  for  the  vacillation  of 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition       7 

the  icy  virgin,  Drake's  Portugal  expedition  would 
have  put  the  triumph  of  the  Spanish  Armada  to 
the  blush,  and  the  great  Admiral  might  have  been 
saved  the  anguish  of  misfortune  that  seemed  to 
follow  his  future  daring  adventures  for  Spanish 
treasure  on  land  and  sea  until  the  shadows  of 
failure  compassed  him  round.  His  spirit  broken 
and  his  body  smitten  with  incurable  disease,  the 
fleet  under  his  command  anchored  at  Puerto  Bello 
after  a  heavy  passage  from  Escudo  de  Veragua,  a 
pestilential  desert  island.  He  was  then  in  deliri- 
um, and  on  the  28th  January,  1596,  the  big  soul 
of  our  greatest  seaman  passed  away  beyond  the 
veil.  His  body  was  put  into  a  lead  and  oak  coffin 
and  taken  a  few  miles  out  to  sea,  and  amidst  mani- 
festations of  great  sorrow  he  was  lowered  down 
the  side  and  the  waters  covered  him  over.  Two 
useless  prize  ships  were  sunk  beside  him,  and  there 
they  may  still  lie  together.  The  fleet,  having 
lost  their  guiding  spirit,  weighed  anchor  and  shaped 
their  course  homewards. 

Drake  was  not  merely  a  seaman  and  the  creator 
of  generations  of  sailors,  but  he  was  also  a  sea 
warrior  of  superb  naval  genius.  It  was  he  who 
invented  the  magnificent  plan  of  searching  for 
his  country's  enemies  in  every  creek  into  which  he 
could  get  a  craft.  He  also  imbued  Her  Gracious 
Majesty  and  Her  Gracious  Majesty's  seamen  with 
the  idea  that  in  warfare  on  sea  or  land  it  is  a  first 
principle  to  strike  first  if  you  wish  to  gain  the  field 
and  hold  it.     Having  smashed  his  antagonist,  he 


8         Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

regarded  it  as  a  plain  duty  in  the  name  of  God 
to  live  on  his  beaten  foes  and  seize  their  treasures 
of  gold,  silver,  diamonds,  works  of  art,  etc.,  wher- 
ever these  could  be  laid  hold  of.  The  First  Lady 
of  the  Land  was  abashed  at  the  gallant  sailor's 
bold  piratical  efforts.  She  would  not  touch  the 
dirty,  ill-gotten  stuff  until  the  noble  fellow  had 
told  her  the  fascinating  story  of  his  matchless 
adventures  and  slashing  successes.  Doubtless  the 
astute  Admiral  had  learned  that  his  blameless 
Queen  was  only  averse  to  sharing  with  him  the 
plunder  of  a  risky  voyage  until  he  had  assured  her 
again  and  again  that  her  cousin,  Philip  of  Spain, 
had  his  voracious  eye  on  her  life,  her  throne,  and  all 
her  British  possessions,  wherever  they  might  be. 

The  valiant  seaman  appears  to  have  played 
daintily  and  to  good  effect  with  the  diabolical 
acts  of  the  Spaniards,  such  as  the  burning  of  Eng- 
lish seamen,  until  they  roused  in  Elizabeth  the 
spirit  of  covetousness  and  retaliation.  It  was 
easy  then  for  her  incorruptible  integrity  (!)  to 
surrender  to  temptation.  A  division  of  what  had 
been  taken  from  Philip's  subjects  was  forthwith 
piously  made.  Elizabeth,  being  the  chief  of  the 
contracting  parties,  took  with  her  accustomed 
grace  the  queenly  share.  On  one  occasion  she 
walked  in  the  parks  with  Drake,  held  a  royal 
banquet  on  board  the  notorious  Pelican,  and 
knighted  him;  while  he,  in  return  for  these  little 
attentions,  lavished  on  his  Queen  presents  of 
diamonds,    emeralds,    etc.     The    accounts   which 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition       9 

have  been  handed  down  to  us  seem,  in  these  days, 
amazing  in  their  cold-blooded  defiance  of  honour- 
able dealing.  But  we  must  face  the  hard  facts 
of  the  necessity  of  retaliation  against  the  revolting 
deeds  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  determined, 
intriguing  policy  of  worming  Popery  into  the  hearts 
of  a  Protestant  nation,  and  then  we  realize  that 
Drake's  methods  were  the  "invention'*  of  an 
inevitable  alternative  either  to  fight  this  hideous 
despotism  with  more  desperate  weapons  and 
greater  vigour  than  the  languid,  luxury-loving 
Spaniards  had  taken  the  trouble  to  create  or  suc- 
cumb to  their  tremendous  power  of  wealth  and 
wickedness.  Drake  was  the  chosen  instrument 
of  an  inscrutable  destiny,  and  we  owe  it  to  him 
that  the  divided  England  of  that  day  was  saved 
from  annihilation.  He  broke  the  power  of  Spain 
at  sea,  and  established  England  as  the  first  naval 
and  mercantile  Power  in  the  world.  He  was  the 
real  founder  of  generations  of  seamen,  and  his 
undying  fame  will  inspire  generations  yet  unborn 
to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  seas. 

The  callous,  brutal  attitude  of  Elizabeth  towards 
a  race  of  men  who  had  given  their  lives  and  souls 
so  freely  in  every  form  of  danger  and  patriotic 
adventure  because  they  believed  it  to  be  a  holy 
duty  is  one  of  the  blackest  pages  of  human  history. 
The  cruelties  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  and  the 
treatment  of  sailors  in  the  galleys  were  only  differ- 
ent in  degree,  and  while  there  are  sound  reasons 
for  condemning  the  Queen  and  the  ruling  classes 


io       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

of  that  time  for  conduct  that  would  not  be  toler- 
ated in  these  days,  it  is  unquestionably  true  that 
it  was  a  difficult  task  to  keep  under  control  the 
spirit  of  rebellion  of  that  period,  as  it  is  to-day. 
Doubtless  those  in  authority  were,  in  their  judg- 
ment, compelled  to  rule  with  a  heavy  hand  in 
order  to  keep  in  check  wilful  breaches  of  discipline. 
Attempts  to  mutiny  and  acts  of  treason  were 
incidents  in  the  wonderful  career  of  Francis  Drake 
which  frequently  caused  him  to  act  with  severity. 
Doughty,  the  Spanish  spy,  who  was  at  one  time 
a  personal  friend  of  Drake's,  resolved  to  betray 
his  commander.  Doughty  was  caught  in  the  act, 
tried  by  a  court  composed  of  men  serving  under 
Drake,  found  guilty,  and  after  dining  with  the 
Admiral,  chatting  cheerfully  as  in  their  friendly 
days,  they  drank  each  other's  health  and  had  some 
private  conversation  not  recorded;  then  Doughty 
was  led  to  the  place  of  execution  and  had  his  head 
chopped  off,  Drake  exclaiming  as  it  fell,  "Lo, 
this  is  the  end  of  traitors!"  Then  Drake  relieved 
Fletcher  of  his  duties  as  chaplain  by  telling  him 
softly  that  he  would  "  preach  this  day."  The  ship's 
company  was  called  together  and  he  exhorted 
them  to  harmony,  warning  them  of  the  danger  of 
discord.  Then  in  his  breezy  phraseology  he  ex- 
claims, "  By  the  life  of  God,  it  doth  even  take  my 
wits  from  me  to  think  of  it."  The  crew,  it  appears, 
was  composed  of  gentlemen,  who  were  obviously 
putting  on  airs,  and  sailors,  who  resented  their 
swank   as  much   as   did   the  great   captain.     So 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      n 

Drake  proceeds  to  lay  the  law  down  vehemently. 
"Let  us  show  ourselves,"  said  he,  "all  to  be  of 
one  company,  and  let  us  not  give  occasion  to  the 
enemy  to  rejoice  at  our  decay  and  overthrow. 
Show  me  the  man  that  would  refuse  to  set  his 
hand  to  a  rope,  but  I  know  that  there  is  not  any 
such  here."  Then  he  proceeds  to  drive  home 
his  plan  of  discipline  with  vigour.  "  And  as  gentle- 
men are  necessary  for  government's  sake  in  the 
voyage,  so  I  have  shipped  them  to  that  and  to 
some  further  intent."  He  does  not  say  quite 
what  it  is,  but  they  doubtless  understand  that 
it  is  meant  to  be  a  warning  lest  he  should  be 
compelled  to  put  them  through  some  harsh  form 
of  punishment.  He  concludes  his  memorable 
address  with  a  few  candid  words,  in  which  he 
declares  that  he  knows  sailors  to  be  the  most 
envious  people  in  the  world  and,  in  his  own  words, 
"unruly  without  government,"  yet,  says  he, 
"May  I  not  be  without  them!"  It  is  quite  clear 
that  Drake  would  have  no  class  distinction.  His 
little  sermon  sank  deep  into  the  souls  of  his  crew, 
so  that  when  he  offered  the  Marigold  to  those 
who  had  lost  heart,  to  take  them  back  to  England, 
he  had  not  only  made  them  ashamed  of  their 
refractory  conduct,  but  imbued  them  with  a  new 
spirit,  which  caused  them  to  vie  with  each  other 
in  professions  of  loyalty  and  eagerness  to  go  on 
with  him  and  comply  with  all  the  conditions  of 
the  enterprise. 

The  great  commander  had  no  room  for  antics 


12        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

of  martyrdom.  He  gave  human  nature  first  place 
in  his  plan  of  dealing  with  human  affairs.  He 
did  not  allow  his  mind  to  be  disturbed  by  trifles. 
He  had  big  jobs  to  tackle,  and  he  never  doubted 
that  he  was  the  one  and  only  man  who  could  carry 
them  to  a  successful  issue.  He  took  his  instruc- 
tions from  Elizabeth  and  her  blustering  ministers, 
whom  he  regarded  as  just  as  likely  to  serve  Philip 
as  the  Tudor  Queen  if  it  came  to  a  matter  of  de- 
ciding between  Popery  and  Protestantism.  He 
received  their  instructions  in  a  courtly  way,  but 
there  are  striking  evidences  that  he  was  ever  on 
the  watch  for  their  vacillating  pranks,  and  he 
always  dashed  out  of  port  as  soon  as  he  had  re- 
ceived the  usual  hesitating  permission.  Once 
out  of  reach,  he  brushed  aside  imperial  instruc- 
tions if  they  stood  in  the  way  of  his  own  definite 
plan  of  serving  the  best  interests  of  his  country, 
and  if  the  course  he  took  did  not  completely  suc- 
ceed— which  was  seldom  the  case — he  believed 
"the  reason  was  best  known  to  God." 

John  Hawkins  and  Francis  Drake  had  a  simple 
faith  in  the  divine  object  they  were  serving.  Haw- 
kins thought  it  an  act  of  high  godliness  to  pretend 
that  he  had  turned  Papist,  in  order  that  he  might 
revenge  and  rescue  the  remnant  of  his  poor  com- 
rades of  the  San  Juan  de  Ulloa  catastrophe,  who 
were  now  shut  up  in  Seville  yards  and  made  to 
work  in  chains.  Sir  John  hoodwinked  Philip  by 
making  use  of  Mr.  George  Fitzwilliam,  who  in 
turn   made    use   of   Rudolfe    and    Mary    Stuart. 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      13 

Mary  believed  in  the  genuineness  of  the  conspiracy 
to  assassinate  Elizabeth  and  set  up  the  Queen  of 
Scots  in  her  place,  to  hand  over  Elizabeth's  ships 
to  Spain,  confiscate  property,  and  to  kill  a  number 
of  anti-Catholic  people.  The  Hawkins  counter- 
plot of  revenge  on  Philip  and  his  guilty  confederates 
was  completely  successful.  The  comic  audacity 
of  it  is  almost  beyond  belief.  The  Pope  had 
bestowed  his  blessing  on  the  conspiracy,  and  the 
Spanish  Council  of  State  was  enthusiastically 
certain  of  its  success.  So  credulous  were  they  of 
the  great  piratical  seaman's  conversion,  that  an 
agreement  was  signed  pardoning  Hawkins  for  his 
acts  of  piracy  in  the  West  Indies  and  other  places; 
a  Spanish  peerage  was  given  him  together  with 
£40,000  which  was  to  be  used  for  equipping  the 
privateer  fleet.  The  money  was  duly  paid  in 
London,  and  possibly  some  of  it  was  used  for 
repairing  the  British  squadron  which  Hawkins 
had  pronounced  as  being  composed  of  the  finest 
ships  in  the  world  for  him  to  hand  over  to  Philip, 
even  though  they  had  been  neglected  owing  to 
the  Queen's  meanness.  The  plausible  way  in 
which  the  great  seaman  put  this  proposition 
caught  the  imagination  of  the  negotiators.  They 
were  captivated  by  him.  He  had  caused  them  to 
believe  that  he  was  a  genuine  seceder  from  heresy 
and  from  allegiance  to  the  Queen  of  England,  and 
was  anxious  to  avow  his  penitence  for  the  great 
sins  he  had  committed  against  God  and  the  only 
true  faith,  and  to  make  atonement  for  them  in 


i4       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

befitting  humility.  All  he  asked  for  was  forgive- 
ness, and  in  the  fulness  of  magnanimity  they 
were  possibly  moved  to  ask  if,  in  addition  to  for- 
giveness, a  Spanish  peerage,  and  £40,000,  he  would 
like  to  commemorate  the  occasion  of  his  conver- 
sion by  a  further  token  of  His  Spanish  Majesty's 
favour.  It  is  easy  to  picture  the  apparent  indiffer- 
ence with  which  he  suggested  that  he  did  not  ask 
for  favours,  but  if  he  were  to  ask  for  anything, 
it  would  be  the  release  from  the  Inquisition  galleys 
of  a  few  poor  sailor  prisoners.  The  apparently 
modest  request  was  granted.  Hawkins  had  risked 
his  life  to  accomplish  this,  and  now  he  writes  a 
letter  to  Cecil  beginning  "My  very  good  Lord." 
I  do  not  give  the  whole  of  the  letter.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  he  confirms  the  success  of  the  plot  so 
far  as  he  is  concerned,  and  in  a  last  paragraph 
he  says,  "I  have  sent  your  Lordship  the  copy  of 
my  pardon  from  the  King  of  Spain,  in  the  order 
and  manner  I  have  it,  with  my  great  titles  and 
honours  from  the  King,  from  which  God  deliver 
me." 

The  process  by  which  Hawkins  succeeded  in 
obtaining  the  object  he  had  in  view  was  the  con- 
ception of  no  ordinary  man.  We  talk  and  write 
of  his  wonderful  accomplishments  on  sea  and 
land,  as  a  skilful,  brave  sailor,  but  he  was  more 
than  that.  He  was,  in  many  respects,  a  genius, 
and  his  courage  and  resolution  were  unfailingly 
magnificent. 

I  dare  say  the  prank  he  played  on  Philip  and 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      15 

his  advisers  would  be  regarded  as  unworthy  cun- 
ning, and  an  outrage  on  the  rules  of  high  honour. 
Good  Protestant  Christians  disapproved  then, 
as  now,  the  wickedness  of  thus  gambling  with 
religion  to  attain  any  object  whatsoever,  and  es- 
pecially of  swearing  by  the  Mother  of  God,  the 
renunciation  of  the  Protestant  faith  and  the  adop- 
tion of  Roman  Catholicism.  The  Spaniards,  who 
had  a  hand  in  this  nefarious  proceeding,  were 
quite  convinced  that,  though  Hawkins  had  been 
a  pirate  and  a  sea  robber  and  murderer,  now  that 
he  had  come  over  to  their  faith  the  predisposition 
to  his  former  evil  habits  would  leave  him.  These 
were  the  high  moral  grounds  on  which  was  based 
the  resolve  to  execute  Elizabeth  and  a  large  num- 
ber of  her  subjects,  and  take  possession  of  the 
throne  and  private  property  at  their  will.  It  was, 
of  course,  the  spirit  of  retaliation  for  the  iniquities 
of  the  British  rovers  which  was  condoned  by 
their  monarch.  In  justification  of  our  part  of  the 
game  during  this  period  of  warfare  for  religious 
and  material  ascendancy,  we  stand  by  the  eternal 
platitude  that  in  that  age  we  were  compelled  to 
act  differently  from  what  we  should  be  justified 
in  doing  now.  Civilization,  for  instance,  so  the 
argument  goes,  was  at  a  low  ebb  then.  I  am  not 
so  sure  that  it  did  not  stand  higher  than  it  does 
now.  It  is  so  easy  for  nations  to  become  uncivil- 
ized, and  we,  in  common  with  other  nations, 
have  a  singular  aptitude  for  it  when  we  think  we 
have  a  grievance.     Be  that  as  it  may,  Hawkins, 


1 6       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Drake,  and  the  other  fine  sea  rovers  had  no  petty 
scruples  about  relieving  Spaniards  of  their  treasure 
when  they  came  across  it  on  land  or  on  their  ships 
at  sea.  Call  them  by  what  epithet  you  like,  they 
believed  in  the  sanctity  of  their  methods  of  carry- 
ing on  war,  and  the  results  for  the  most  part  con- 
firmed the  accuracy  of  their  judgment.  At  any 
rate,  by  their  bold  and  resolute  deeds  they  estab- 
lished British  freedom  and  her  supremacy  of  the 
seas,  and  handed  down  to  us  an  abiding  spirit 
that  has  reared  the  finest  seamen  and  established 
our  incomparable  merchant  fleet,  the  largest  and 
finest  in  the  world. 

There  is  no  shame  in  wishing  the  nation  to 
become  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  these  old-time 
heroes,  for  the  heritage  they  have  bequeathed  to 
us  is  divine  and  lives  on.  We  speak  of  the  great 
deeds  they  were  guided  to  perform,  but  we  rarely 
stop  to  think  from  whence  the  inspiration  came, 
until  we  are  touched  by  a  throbbing  impulse  that 
brings  us  into  the  presence  of  the  great  mystery, 
at  which  who  would  dare  to  mock  ? 

It  is  strange  that  Hawkins's  and  Drake's  brilliant 
and  tragic  careers  should  have  been  brought  to 
an  end  by  the  same  disease  within  a  short  time 
of  each  other  and  not  many  miles  apart,  and  that 
their  mother,  the  sea,  should  have  claimed  them 
at  last  in  the  vicinity  of  the  scene  of  their  first 
victorious  encounter  with  their  lifelong  enemies, 
the  Spaniards.  The  death  of  the  two  invincibles, 
who  had  long  struck  terror  into  the  hearts  of  their 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      17 

foes,  was  the  signal  for  prolonged  rejoicings  in 
the  Spanish  Main  and  the  Indies,  while  the  British 
squadron,  battered  and  disease-smitten,  made  its 
melancholy  way  homeward  with  the  news  of  the 
tragedy. 

For  a  time  the  loss  of  these  commanding  figures 
dealt  a  blow  at  the  national  spirit.  There  are 
usually  long  intervals  between  Caesars  and  Napo- 
leons. Nations  have,  in  obedience  to  some  law 
of  Nature,  to  pass  through  periods  of  mediocre 
rule,  and  when  men  of  great  genius  and  dominating 
qualities  come  to  clear  up  the  mess,  they  are  only 
tolerated  possibly  by  fear,  and  never  for  long  by 
appreciation.  A  capricious  public  soon  tires  of 
these  living  heroes.  It  is  after  they  are  dead  that 
they  become  abiding  examples  of  human  great- 
ness, not  so  much  to  their  contemporaries  as  to 
those  generations  that  follow  them.  The  historian 
has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  manner  in  which 
the  fame  of  a  great  man  is  handed  down  to  poster- 
ity, and  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  histo- 
rians have  to  depend  on  evidence  which  may  be 
faulty,  while  their  own  judgment  may  not  always 
be  sound.  It  is  a  most  difficult  task  to  discipline 
the  mind  into  a  perfectly  unbiased  condition. 
The  great  point  is  to  state  honestly  what  you 
believe,  and  not  what  you  may  know  those  you 
are  speaking  to  wish  you  to  say.  The  contem- 
poraries of  Hawkins  and  Drake  unquestionably 
regarded  them  with  high  admiration,  but  I  ques- 
tion whether  they  were  deified  then  as  they  are 


1 8       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

now.  The  same  thing  applies  to  Nelson  and 
Collingwood,  of  whom  I  shall  speak  later  on,  as 
the  historian  has  put  the  stamp  upon  their  great 
deeds  also. 

Drake  and  Hawkins  attracted  attention  be- 
cause of  their  daring  voyages  and  piratical  enter- 
prises on  Spanish  property  on  sea  and  land.  Every 
obstacle  was  brushed  aside.  Danger  ever  ap- 
pealed to  them.  They  dashed  into  fortified  ports 
filled  with  warships  fully  equipped,  silenced  the 
forts,  sank  and  set  fire  to  Philip's  vessels,  and 
made  everything  and  everybody  fly  before  them 
in  the  belief  that  hell  had  been  let  loose.  To  the 
superstitious  Spanish  mind  it  seemed  as  though 
the  English  must  be  under  Satanic  protection 
when  they  slashed  their  way  undaunted  into  the 
midst  of  dangers  which  would  inevitably  spell 
death  for  the  mere  mortal.  These  corsairs  of 
ours  obviously  knew  and  took  advantage  of  this 
superstition,  for  cannon  were  never  resorted  to 
without  good  reason,  and  never  without  effect. 
The  deliberate  defiance  of  any  written  or  unwrit- 
ten law  that  forbade  their  laying  hands  on  the 
treasure  they  sought  so  diligently,  and  went  far 
and  near  to  find,  merely  increased  public  admira- 
tion. Elizabeth  pretended  that  they  were  very 
trying  to  her  Christian  virtues.  But  leave  out  of 
count  the  foregoing  deeds — which  no  one  can  dis- 
pute were  prodigious,  and  quite  equal  to  the  part 
these  men  played  in  the  destruction  of  the  Armada 
— what  could  be  more  dashingly  brilliant  in  naval 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      19 

warfare  than  Drake's  raids  on  San  Domingo, 
Carthagena,  Cadiz,  and  other  ports  and  cities  of 
old  and  new  Spain,  to  which  I  have  already  briefly 
alluded?  It  was  their  great  successes  in  their 
great  undertakings,  no  matter  whether  it  was 
"shocking  piracy"  or  not,  that  immortalized  these 
terrible  creators  of  England's  greatness  all  the 
world  over! 

Thomas  Cobham,  a  member  of  a  lordly  and 
Protestant  family,  became  a  sailor,  and  soon  be- 
came fascinated  with  the  gay  life  of  privateering. 
Once  when  in  command  of  a  vessel,  eagerly  scour- 
ing the  seas  for  Spanish  prizes,  one  was  sighted, 
bound  from  Antwerp  to  Cadiz.  Cobham  gave 
chase,  easily  captured  her  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay, 
and  discovered  there  were  forty  Inquisition  pris- 
oners aboard.  After  rescuing  the  prisoners,  the 
captain  and  crew  of  the  Spanish  vessel  were  then 
sewn  up  in  their  own  mainsail  and  tossed  into  the 
sea,  no  doubt  with  such  sententious  expressions 
of  godliness  as  was  thought  befitting  to  sacred 
occasions  of  that  period.  This  ceremony  having 
been  performed,  the  vessel  was  scuttled,  so  that 
she  might  nevermore  be  used  in  trading  with  Brit- 
ish sailors  or  any  one  else  for  Inquisition  purposes. 
When  the  story  became  known,  the  case  was  dis- 
creetly inquired  into,  and  very  properly  the  gallant 
Cobham  was  never  punished,  and  was  soon  run- 
ning here  and  there  at  his  old  game. 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  there  was  no 
mincing  matters  when  an  opportunity  for  reprisals 


20       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

occurred.  The  Spaniards  had  carried  barbarism 
to  such  a  pitch  in  seizing  our  ships  and  condemning 
their  crews  to  the  galleys,  that  Queen  Elizabeth 
was  never  averse  to  meeting  murder  and  plunder 
by  more  than  the  equivalent  in  retaliation,  except 
when  she  imagined  that  Philip  was  showing  signs 
of  overpowering  strength ;  she  then  became  timid 
and  vacillating.  She  was  never  mentally  dis- 
turbed by  the  moral  side  of  the  great  deeds  that 
brought  her  vast  stores  of  plunder.  Moreover, 
she  could  always  find  an  accommodating  bishop 
to  put  her  qualms  (if  she  ever  had  any,  except  those 
of  consequence  to  herself)  at  rest  on  points  of 
conscience.  One  noted  personage,  who  held  high 
ecclesiastical  office,  told  her  that  it  was  a  virtue 
to  seize  treasure  when  she  knew  it  would  otherwise 
be  used  for  the  purpose  of  murdering  her  Pro- 
testant subjects.  Sir  Arthur  Champernowne,  a 
noted  vice-admiral  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  in  writing 
to  Cecil  of  the  vessel  that  had  put  into  Plymouth 
through  stress  of  weather  with  the  needy  Philip's 
half-million  of  ducats  on  board,  borrowed,  it  is 
said,  from  a  Genoa  firm  of  financiers,  said  it  should 
be  claimed  as  fair  booty.  Sir  Arthur's  view  was 
that  anything  taken  from  so  perfidious  a  nation 
was  both  necessary  and  profitable  to  the  Common- 
wealth. No  doubt  a  great  deal  of  pious  discus- 
sion would  centre  round  the  Vice-Admiral's  easy 
moral  but  very  logical  opinions.  The  main  thing 
in  his  mind,  and  in  that  of  everybody  else  who  was 
free  from  poisoned  cant,  was  that  the  most  shock- 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      21 

ing  crimes  were  being  openly  advocated  by  Philip, 
King  of  Spain,  against  all  European  Protestants, 
rich  or  poor,  who  came  within  the  clutches  of  the 
savages  that  administered  the  cruelties  of  the 
Inquisition.  The  canting  crowd  shrieked  against 
the  monstrous  impiety  of  such  notions,  but  their 
efforts  to  prove  purity  of  motive  were  unavailing. 

After  considered  thought  by  a  committee  of 
men  of  high  rectitude,  it  was  decided  to  act  with- 
out fear  or  favour  in  a  strictly  impartial  manner, 
so  Philip's  half-million  of  bullion  was  divided 
between  the  Prince  of  Orange  and  the  rigid  moral- 
ist, Elizabeth,  who  is  credited  with  having  spent 
her  share  on  the  Navy,  a  very  admirable  way  of 
disposing  of  it. 

This  act  was  the  cause  of  a  deluge  of  reprisals 
on  the  part  of  Spain.  But,  from  all  accounts, 
Elizabeth's  corsairs  had  always  the  best  of  it  in 
matters  of  material  importance.  The  Spanish 
are  naturally  a  proud,  brave  race.  In  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century  their  power  dominated 
two  thirds  of  the  universe,  and  had  they  stuck 
to  business,  and  not  so  feverishly  to  the  spreading 
of  their  religious  faith  by  violent  means,  they 
might  have  continued  a  predominant  nation. 

Their  civil,  naval,  and  military  position  was 
unequalled.  The  commerce  and  wealth  of  the 
whole  world  were  pre-eminently  in  their  hands, 
and  in  common  with  other  nations  who  arrive  at 
heights  of  power,  prosperity,  and  grandeur  (which 
last  sits  so  easily  on  the  Spaniard),  they  gave  way 


22       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

to  pleasures  and  to  the  luxury  of  laziness  which 
invariably  carries  with  it  sensuality.  Wherever 
they  found  themselves  in  the  ascendancy,  they  in- 
trigued to  impose  the  Roman  faith  on  the  popula- 
tion, and  if  that  method  did  not  succeed  with 
felicity,  whenever  the  agents  of  their  governing 
classes,  including  their  king,  met  with  opposition 
from  prominent  men  or  women,  their  opponents 
were  put  to  the  rack,  burnt,  or  their  heads  sent 
flying.  In  this  country  no  leading  Protestant's 
life  or  property  was  safe.  Even  Elizabeth,  during 
the  reign  of  her  half-sister,  Mary,  was  obliged  to 
make  believe  that  her  religious  faith  was  Roman 
in  harmony  with  that  of  the  Queen.  It  was  either 
adoption,  deception,  or  execution,  and  the  future 
queen  outwitted  all  their  traps  and  inventions 
until  Mary  passed  on,  and  Elizabeth  took  her 
place  on  the  throne. 

Meanwhile,  Spain,  as  I  have  indicated,  was 
tampering  with  abiding  laws.  Catastrophe  al- 
ways follows  perilous  habits  of  life,  which  were 
correctly  attributed  to  the  Spanish.  As  with 
individuals,  so  it  is  with  nations;  pride  can  never 
successfully  run  in  conjunction  with  the  decadence 
of  wealth.  It  is  manifestly  true  that  it  is  easier 
for  a  nation  to  go  up  than  to  realize  that  it  has 
come  down,  and  during  long  years  Spain  has  had 
to  learn  this  bitter  lesson.  It  was  not  only  im- 
perious pride  of  race  and  extravagant  grandeur 
that  brought  the  destruction  of  her  supremacy 
of  the  seas,   and  the  wealth  and  supremacy  of 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      23 

many  lands,  but  their  intolerable  religious  despot- 
ism towards  those  who  were  not  already,  and 
refused  to  become,  as  I  have  said,  adherents  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  creed.  Poor  wretches  who 
were  not  strong  enough  to  defend  themselves  had 
the  mark  of  heretics  put  on  them ;  and  for  nearly 
thirty  years  Spaniards  carried  on  a  system  of 
burning  British  seamen  whenever  they  could 
lay  hands  on  them.  They  kept  up  a  constant 
system  of  spying  and  plotting  against  the  British 
Protestant  Queen,  and  her  subjects  of  every  posi- 
tion in  life.  The  policy  of  the  Spanish  King  and 
government  was  to  make  the  British  and  other 
races  vassals  of  the  Pope.  Philip,  like  all  powerful 
monarchs  and  individuals  who  are  put  into  power 
without  any  of  the  qualities  of  fitness  to  fill  a  high 
post,  always  believed  that  his  presence  on  earth 
was  an  act  of  supreme  Providence.  Philip,  in 
proclaiming  his  glorious  advent  for  the  good  of 
mankind,  explained  it  with  a  decorum  that  had  a 
fascinating  flavour.  Unlike  some  imitators  of  great 
personalities,  he  was  never  vulgarly  boastful  in 
giving  expression  to  the  belief  that  his  power  came 
from  above  and  would  be  sustained  by  the  mystery 
that  gave  him  it  in  such  abundance,  but,  in  fact, 
he  never  doubted  what  was  known  as  the  doctrine 
of  the  divine  right  of  kings. 

The  human  support  which  kept  him  in  author- 
ity did  not  enter  into  his  calculations.  The 
popular  notions  of  the  democracies  then  was  that 
no  physical  force  could  sever  the  alliance  which 


24        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

existed  between  God  and  monarchs;  and  there 
is  no  evidence  that  Philip  was  ever  disillusioned. 
He  regarded  his  adversaries,  especially  Hawkins 
and  Drake,  in  the  light  of  magicians  possessed 
of  devilish  spirits  that  were  in  conflict  with  the 
wishes  of  the  Deity.  His  highly  placed  and  best 
naval  officer,  Santa  Cruz,  took  a  more  realistic 
view  than  his  master,  though  he  might  have  had 
doubts  as  to  whether  the  people  who  were  at  war 
with  Spain  were  not  a  species  of  devil.  But  he 
expressed  the  view  which  even  at  this  distance 
of  time  shows  him  to  have  been  a  man  of  sane, 
practical  thought.  Philip  imagined  he  could  agree 
with  the  acts  of  assassins  (and  also  support  the 
Holy  Office)  in  their  policy  of  burning  English 
sailors  as  heretics.  Santa  Cruz  reflected  more 
deeply,  and  advised  the  King  that  such  acts  were 
positively  courting  disaster,  because  "the  British 
corsairs  had  teeth,  and  could  use  them." 

Spain  looked  upon  her  naval  position  as  im- 
pregnable, but  Elizabeth's  pirates  contemptu- 
ously termed  it  "a  Colossus  stuffed  with  clouts." 
Priests,  crucifixes,  and  reliance  on  supernatural 
assistance  had  no  meaning  for  them.  If  any 
suggestion  to  impose  on  them  by  such  means  had 
been  made,  they  would  have  cast  the  culprits 
over  the  side  into  the  sea.  They  were  peculiarly 
religious,  but  would  tolerate  no  saintly  humbugs 
who  lived  on  superstition.  When  they  had  serious 
work  in  hand,  they  relied  on  their  own  mental 
and  physical  powers,  and  if  they  failed  in  their 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      25 

objective,  they  reverently  remarked,  "The  reason 
is  best  known  to  God" — a  simple,  unadorned 
final  phrase. 

Some  of  the  sayings  and  doings,  reliable  or  un- 
reliable, that  have  been  handed  down  to  us  are 
extremely  comical,  looking  at  them  from  our  re- 
ligious standpoint  in  these  days;  for  instance, 
Drake's  method  of  dealing  with  insubordination, 
his  idea  of  how  treason  was  to  be  stamped  out, 
and  the  trial  of  Doughty,  the  traitor. 

People  who  sit  in  cosy  houses,  which  these  early 
sailors  made  it  possible  for  them  in  other  days 
and  now  to  acquire,  may  regard  many  of  the  dis- 
ciplinary methods  of  Drake  and  his  sea  contem- 
poraries as  sheer  savage  murder,  but  these  critics 
are  not  quite  qualified  to  judge  as  to  the  justice 
or  injustice  of  the  actions  of  one  man  who  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  safe  and  proper  navigation  of  a 
vessel,  no  matter  whether  on  an  enterprising 
voyage  of  piracy,  fair  trade,  or  invasion.  If  a 
nautical  project  is  to  be  carried  out  with  complete 
success,  the  first  element  in  the  venture  is  disci- 
pline, and  the  early  seafarers  believed  this,  as  their 
successors  have  always  done,  especially  during 
the  different  periods  of  the  sailing-ship  era.  A 
commander,  if  he  wishes  to  be  successful  in  keep- 
ing the  spirit  of  rebellion  under,  must  imbue  those 
under  him  with  a  kind  of  awe.  This  only  succeeds 
if  the  commander  has  a  magnetic  and  powerful 
will,  combined  with  quick  action  and  sound,  un- 
hesitating judgment.     All  the  greatest  naval    and 


26        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

military  chiefs  have  had  and  must  have  now  these 
essential  gifts  of  nature  if  they  are  to  be  successful 
in  their  art.  The  man  of  dashing  expediency 
without  judgment  or  knowledge  is  a  great  peril 
in  any  responsible  position.  When  either  a  ship 
or  nation  or  anything  else  is  in  trouble,  it  is  the 
cool,  calculating,  orderly  administrator,  who  never 
makes  chaos  or  destructive  fuss,  that  succeeds. 
That  is  essential,  and  it  is  only  this  type  of  person 
that  so  often  saves  both  ships,  armies,  and  na- 
tions from  inevitable  destruction.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington  used  to  say  that  "in  every  case,  the 
winning  of  a  battle  was  always  a  damned  near 
thing."  One  of  the  most  important  characteristics 
of  Drake's  and  Hawkins's  genius  was  their  fearless 
accurate  methods  of  putting  the  fear  of  God  into 
the  Spaniards,  both  at  sea  and  ashore.  The  men- 
tion of  their  names  made  Philip's  flesh  creep. 
Even  Admiral  Santa  Cruz,  in  common  with  his 
compatriots,  thought  Drake  was  "The  Serpent" 
— "The  Devil."  And  the  Spanish  opinion  of 
him  helped  Drake  to  win  many  a  tough  battle. 
Amongst  the  thrilling  examples  are  his  dashes 
into  Corunna  and  Cadiz.  Drake  never  took  the 
risk  before  calculating  the  cost  and  making  certain 
of  where  the  vulnerable  weak  spot  of  the  enemy 
lay,  and  when  and  where  to  strike  it.  The  com- 
plete vanquishing  of  the  Armada  is  another  in- 
stance of  Drake's  great  qualities  of  slashing  yet 
sound  judgment  put  accurately  into  effect. 
Of  course,   the  honours  of  the  defeat  of  the 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      27 

Armada  must  always  be  shared  with  other  naval 
experts  who  had  acquired  their  knowledge  of  sea 
warfare  in  what  is  called  the  piratical  line.  But 
the  spirit  that  inflamed  the  whole  British  fleet 
was  that  of  Drake,  Hawkins,  Frobisher,  Seymour, 
and  Howard,  and  the  inspiration  came  mainly 
from  the  two  former.  On  the  Spanish  side,  as  a 
naval  battle,  it  was  a  fiasco,  a  mere  colossal  clerical 
burlesque.  Neither  naval  strategy  nor  ordinary 
seamanship  was  in  evidence  on  the  part  of  the 
chief  commander  or  his  admirals.  The  men 
fought  with  rough-and-tumble  heroism.  The 
sailors  were  only  second  in  quality  to  our  own, 
but  there  was  no  plan  of  battle,  and  the  poor  Duke 
of  Medina  Sidonia  had  neither  knowledge  of  naval 
affairs  nor  courage.  Philip's  theory  seems  to 
have  been  that  any  lack  of  efficiency  in  the  art  of 
war  by  his  commanders  would  be  made  up  by  the 
spiritual  encouragement  of  the  priests  dangling 
their  crucifixes  about  the  decks  amongst  the 
sailors  and  soldiers,  who  had  been  put  through  a 
course  of  instruction  on  spiritual  efficacy  before 
sailing  on  their  doomed  expedition.  They  were 
made  to  believe  that  the  Spanish  cause  was  so 
just  that  assistance  would  be  given  from  God 
to  defeat  the  "infernal  devils"  and  to  invade  their 
country. 

This  great  battle  transferred  the  sea  supremacy 
from  the  Spanish  to  the  British,  who  have  held  it, 
with  one  interval,  ever  since,  and  will  continue  to 
hold  it,  provided  that  Philip's  theories  of  relying 


28        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

merely  on  the  help  that  comes  from  above  be 
supplemented  by,  first,  the  appointment  of  a 
proper  head  at  the  Admiralty  with  some  nautical 
instinct  and  knowledge  of  affairs;  and  secondly, 
the  keeping  up  of  an  efficient  fleet,  manned  with 
efficient  officers  and  men.  Heaven  helps  those 
who  help  themselves.  No  department  of  govern- 
ment can  be  properly  managed  by  novices.  The 
reckless,  experimental  appointment  of  untried 
men  to  positions  of  grave  responsibility  on  which 
the  happiness,  comfort,  and  life  of  the  whole 
public  may  depend,  and  the  very  existence  of  the 
country  be  put  in  jeopardy,  is  a  gamble,  and  may 
be  a  crime. 

It  is  always  risky  to  assume  that  any  person 
holding  authority  in  the  bigger  affairs  of  life 
is  in  consequence  an  instrument  of  Providence. 
Had  the  conception  of  the  Armada  and  the  organ- 
ization of  every  detail  been  put  into  the  hands  of 
experienced  and  trained  experts  with  sound  judg- 
ment in  naval  matters,  such  as  Admiral  Santa 
Cruz,  and  had  it  not  been  for  Philip  and  his  lands- 
man ideas  of  the  efficacy  of  priests  and  crucifixes, 
and  greenhorns,  such  as  the  Duke  of  Medina 
Sidonia  and  his  landlubber  colleagues,  Spain  might 
never  have  been  involved  in  the  Armada  fight, 
and  if  she  had,  it  is  scarcely  likely  that  so  appal- 
ling a  disaster  could  have  come  to  her.  Apart 
from  any  fighting,  the  fact  of  having  no  better 
sea  knowledge  or  judgment  than  to  anchor  the 
Spanish  ships  in  an  open  roadstead  like  Calais 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition     29 

was  courting  the  loss  of  the  whole  Spanish  fleet. 
One  of  the  fundamental  precautions  of  seaman- 
ship is  never  to  anchor  on  a  lee  shore  or  in  an 
open  roadstead,  without  a  means  of  escape.  The 
dunderheaded  Spanish  commanders  made  their 
extermination  much  more  easy  for  the  highly- 
trained  British  seamen  of  all  grades,  none  of  whom 
had  any  reason  to  hide  their  heads  in  shame  for 
any  part  they  individually  took  in  the  complete 
ruin  of  the  Spanish  navy. 

One  cannot  read  the  sordid  story  without  feel- 
ing a  pang  of  pity  for  the  proud  men,  such  as 
Recaldo,  who  died  on  landing  at  Bilbao;  or 
Oquendo,  whose  home  was  at  Santander.  He 
refused  to  see  his  wife  and  children,  turned  his 
face  to  the  wall,  and  died  of  a  broken  heart  begot- 
ten of  shame.  The  soldiers  and  sailors  were  so 
weak  they  could  not  help  themselves,  and  died 
in  hundreds  on  the  ships  that  crawled  back  to 
Spain.  The  tragic  fate  of  these  vessels  and  their 
crews  that  were  dashed  to  pieces  on  the  rocks  of 
the  Hebrides  and  Ireland  added  greatly  to  the 
tale  of  horror.  Philip  was  crushed,  but  was  a  man 
of  tender  sympathies,  and  free  from  vindictive 
resentment  against  those  who  were  placed  in 
charge  of  his  terrific  and  ill-fated  navy.  He 
worked  and  exhorted  others  to  relieve  the  sufferers 
in  every  possible  way.  He  obviously  regarded  the 
disaster  as  a  divine  rebuke,  and  submissively  acqui- 
esced with  true  Spanish  indolence,  saying  that  he 
believed  it  to  be  the  "great  purpose  of  Heaven.,, 


30       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

On  the  authority  of  the  Duke  of  Parma,  "The 
English  regarded  their  victory  with  modesty,  and 
were  languidly  indifferent  to  their  valour."  They 
looked  upon  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  navy  as 
a  token  of  the  Ruler  of  all  things  being  decidedly 
partial  to  the  Protestant  faith.  The  Spaniards, 
as  a  whole,  would  not  allow  that  Heaven  was 
against  them  or  that  the  verdict  was  that  of  Pro- 
vidence. They  declared  that  it  was  entirely  the 
result  of  the  superior  management  of  the  English 
ships  and  the  fighting  quality  of  their  crews. 
With  this  chivalrous  testimonial  no  one  could 
then  or  will  now  disagree.  It  was  very  sporting 
of  them  to  admit  the  superiority  of  the  British 
ships  and  seamanship. 

Drake  and  his  compeers  had  reason  to  be  proud 
of  their  efforts  in  the  great  naval  contest.  Their 
reputations  were  enhanced  by  it  all  over  the  world, 
though  never  a  sign  or  word  came  from  themselves 
about  their  gallantry.  They  looked  upon  these 
matters  as  mere  incidents  of  their  enterprising 
lives. 

II 

But  it  is  really  in  the  lesser  sea  encounters, 
though  they  probably  had  just  as  great  results, 
that  we  become  enthralled  by  Drake's  adventur- 
ous voyages.  The  Armada  affair  was  more  like 
the  battle  of  Trafalgar,  one  of  the  differences 
being  that  in  the  latter  engagement  the  Spanish 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      31 

ships  did  not  risk  going  far  into  the  open  sea,  but 
wisely  kept  Cadiz  open  for  retreat,  which  they 
availed  themselves  of  after  receiving  a  dreadful 
pounding.  Drake's  voyage  in  the  Pelican  excelled 
anything  that  had  ever  been  accomplished  by 
previous  sea  rovers,  and  his  expedition  to  the 
West  Indies  was  a  great  feat.  He  always  had 
trouble  with  Queen  Elizabeth  about  money  when 
organizing  his  voyages.  Her  Spanish  brother-in- 
law's  power  was  always  in  her  thoughts.  He  never 
allowed  her  to  forget  that  if  he  were  provoked  he 
would  invade  England,  and  notwithstanding  her 
retort  that  England  had  a  long  arm  which  he 
would  do  well  to  fear,  her  courage  alternated  with 
some  nervousness  at  times.  Elizabeth  was  not 
so  much  concerned  about  his  threat  of  excommu- 
nication of  her  as  the  sly  tricks  in  conjunction 
with  the  Pope  in  spreading  the  spirit  of  rebellion 
in  Ireland,  and  in  other  ways  conspiring  against 
her.  Her  mood  was  at  one  time  to  defy  him,  and 
at  another  conciliatory  and  fearful  lest  her  pirate 
chiefs  should  do  anything  to  provoke  Spanish 
susceptibilities.  Drake  was  much  hampered  by 
her  moods  when  he  wanted  to  get  quickly  to  busi- 
ness, and  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  slipping 
out  of  her  reach  when  his  eloquence  on  the  acquisi- 
tion of  untold  wealth  and  the  capture  of  some 
of  Philip's  distant  colonies  had  appealed  to  her 
boundless  avarice  and  made  her  conscience  easy. 
His  expedition  to  the  West  Indies  might  never  have 
been  undertaken  had  he  not  been   a  dare-devil 


32        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

fellow,  to  whom  Burleigh's  wink  was  as  good  as  a 
nod  to  be  off.  He  slipped  out  of  port  unknown 
to  her,  and  his  first  prize  was  a  large  Spanish  ship 
loaded  with  salt  fish.  He  pounced  upon  her 
after  passing  Ushant,  and  the  excellent  cargo  was 
suitably  distributed  amongst  the  fleet. 

There  were  twenty-five  privateers,  and  a  com- 
pany of  2500  men  on  this  expedition.  All  were 
volunteers,  and  represented  every  grade  of  society, 
high  and  low.  There  was  never  any  difficulty  in 
getting  a  supply  of  men.  On  this  occasion  the 
applications  largely  outnumbered  the  posts  avail- 
able. Drake  could  always  depend  upon  volunteers, 
and,  like  all  men  of  superb  action,  he  had  no  liking 
for  conscription.  He  knew  that  in  the  perform- 
ance and  carrying  out  of  great  deeds  (and  nearly 
all  of  his  were  terrific)  it  is  men  aflame  with  cour- 
age and  enthusiasm  that  carry  the  day,  and,  take 
them  as  a  whole,  conscripts  are  never  whole- 
hearted. The  two  great  characteristics  of  the 
British  race — initiative  and  endurance — are  due 
to  this  burning  flame  of  voluntarism. 

The  West  India  expedition  was  organized  and 
all  expenses  guaranteed  by  private  individu- 
als. The  capital  was  £60,000  and  its  allocation 
was  £40,000  for  expenses  and  £20,000  to  be  dis- 
tributed amongst  those  who  had  volunteered 
to  serve.  Both  men  and  officers  had  signed  on 
without  any  stipulation  for  wages.  They  knew 
they  were  out  for  a  piratical  cruise,  and  welcomed 
any  danger,  great  or  small,  that  would  give  them 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      33 

a  chance  of  making  it  not  only  a  monetary  success, 
but  one  that  would  give  Spanish  autocracy  an- 
other shattering  blow.  These  ancient  mariners 
never  trifled  with  life,  and  no  sombre  views  or 
fatal  shadows  disturbed  their  spirited  ambition 
or  caused  them  to  shrink  from  their  strenuous 
and  stupendous  work.  They  went  forth  in  their 
cockleshell  fleet  as  full  of  hope  and  confidence  as 
those  who  are  accustomed  to  sail  and  man  a  trans- 
atlantic liner  of  the  present  day.  Some  of  their 
vessels  were  but  little  larger  than  a  present-day 
battle-ship's  tender.  Neither  roaring  forties  nor 
Cape  Horn  hurricanes  intimidated  them.  It  is 
only  when  we  stop  to  think,  that  we  realize  how 
great  these  adventurers  were,  and  how  much  we 
owe  to  their  sacred  memories. 

In  addition  to  being  ridiculously  small  and 
shabby  in  point  of  efficiency  in  rigging,  sails,  and 
general  outfit,  it  will  always  be  a  mystery  how  it 
was  that  so  few  were  lost  by  stress  of  weather  or 
even  ordinary  navigable  risks.  They  were  veri- 
table boxes  in  design,  and  their  rig  alone  made  it 
impossible  for  them  to  make  rapid  passages,  even 
if  they  had  wished  to  do  so.  As  I  write  these 
lines,  and  think  of  my  own  Western  Ocean  experi- 
ences in  well-designed,  perfectly  equipped,  large 
and  small  sailing  vessels  during  the  winter  hurri- 
cane months,  when  the  passages  were  made  liter- 
ally under  water  and  every  liquid  mountain 
seemed  to  forbode  immediate  destruction,  it  taxes 
my  nautical  knowledge  to  understand  how  these 


34       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

inferior  and  smaller  craft  which  Drake  commanded 
did  not  succumb  to  the  same  elements  that  have 
carried  superior  vessels  in  later  years  to  their 
doom.  One  reason  that  occurs  to  me  is  that  they 
were  never  deeply  laden,  and  they  were  accustomed 
to  ride  hurricanes  out  when  they  had  plenty  of 
sea  room  at  their  sea  anchors. 

But  nothing  can  detract  from  what  our  genera- 
tion may  describe  as  their  eccentric  genius  in 
combining  navigation  with  piracy  and  naval  and 
military  art.  Talk  about  "human  vision"! 
What  is  the  good  of  it  if  it  turns  out  nothing  but 
unrestrained  confusion?  The  men  of  the  period 
I  am  writing  about  had  real  "vision/'  and  applied 
it  with  accuracy  without  disorganizing  the  ma- 
chinery of  life  and  making  the  world  a  miserable 
place  to  live  in.  They  were  all  for  country  and 
none  for  self. 

After  the  capture  of  the  Spanish  ship  and  the 
appropriation  of  her  cargo  of  fish,  Drake's  fleet 
went  lounging  along  towards  Vigo.  In  due  course 
he  brought  his  ships  to  anchor  in  the  harbour, 
and  lost  no  time  in  coming  in  contact  with  Don 
Pedro  Bendero,  the  Spanish  governor,  who  was 
annoyed  at  the  British  Admiral's  unceremonious 
appearance.  Don  Pedro  said  that  he  was  not 
aware  that  his  country  was  at  war  with  Britain. 
Drake  quickly  disillusioned  him,  and  demanded, 
"If  we  are  not  at  war,  why  have  English  merchants 
been  arrested?"  Don  Pedro  said  an  order  had 
come  for  their  release.     Drake  landed  forthwith 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      35 

a  portion  of  his  force,  and  seeing  that  he  meant 
business  that  foreboded  trouble,  the  governor 
sent  him  wine,  fruit,  and  other  luxurious  articles 
of  food  in  abundance.  The  ships  were  anchored 
in  a  somewhat  open  roadstead,  so  Drake  resolved 
to  take  them  farther  up  the  waterway  where  they 
would  lie  comfortably,  no  matter  from  what  direc- 
tion the  threatening  storm  might  break.  But  he 
had  another  shrewd  object  in  view,  which  was  to 
make  a  beginning  in  acquiring  any  of  the  valuable 
and  treasured  possessions  adorning  the  churches. 
A  trusted  officer  who  was  in  his  confidence,  and 
a  great  admirer  of  his  wisdom  and  other  personal 
qualities,  was  sent  to  survey  the  passage  and  to 
find  a  suitable  anchorage.  He  was  a  man  of  enter- 
prise, with  a  strong  dislike  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith,  and  never  doubted  that  he  was  perfectly 
justified  in  relieving  the  churches  of  plate  and 
other  valuables.  These  were,  in  his  eyes,  articles 
of  idolatry  that  no  man  of  puritanic  and  Pro- 
testant principles  could  refrain  from  removing 
and  placing  under  the  safe  keeping  of  his  revered 
chief,  who  was  no  more  averse  to  robbing  a  church 
than  he  was  to  robbing  a  ship  carrying  gold  or  fish. 
As  the  vessel  in  charge  of  this  intrepid  officer, 
whose  name  was  Carlile,  approached  the  town 
where  it  was  proposed  to  anchor  the  fleet  the  in- 
habitants fled,  taking  with  them  much  of  the 
church  plate  and  other  things  which  the  British 
had  covetously  thought  an  appropriate  prize  of 
theirs.     Carlile,   being   a  man  of  resource,   soon 


36        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

laid  hold  of  other  church  treasure,  which  amply 
compensated  for  the  loss  of  that  which  was  carried 
off  by  the  fleeing  inhabitants  at  the  mouth  of  the 
harbour.  The  day  following  Christopher  Carlile's 
satisfactory  survey  the  fleet  was  anchored  off  the 
town.  The  sight  of  it  threw  the  whole  district 
into  panic.  A  pompous  governor  of  Galicia  has- 
tened to  Vigo,  and  on  his  arrival  there  he  took 
fright  at  the  number  of  ships  and  the  dreaded 
name  of  the  pirate  chief  who  was  in  command. 
It  would  be  futile  to  show  fight,  so  he  determined 
to  accommodate  himself  to  the  Admiral's  terms, 
which  were  that  he  should  have  a  free  hand  to 
replenish  the  fleet  with  water  and  provisions,  or 
any  other  odds  and  ends,  without  interference. 
This  being  accomplished,  he  agreed  to  sail,  and 
no  doubt  the  governor  thought  he  had  made  a 
judicious  bargain  in  getting  rid  of  him  so  easily. 
But  Drake  all  the  time  had  the  Spanish  gold  fleet 
in  his  mind.  Sacrifices  must  be  made  in  order 
that  it  may  be  captured,  so  off  he  went  for  the 
Cape  de  Verde  Islands,  and  found  when  he  got 
there  that  the  treasure-ships  had  arrived  and 
sailed  only  a  few  hours  before.  The  disappoint- 
ment was,  according  to  custom,  taken  with  Chris- 
tian composure.  He  had  the  aptitude  of  switching 
his  mind  from  one  form  of  warfare  to  another.  As 
I  have  said,  he  would  just  as  soon  attack  and 
plunder  a  city  as  a  church  or  a  ship.  Drake  had 
missed  the  gold  fleet,  so  he  turned  his  attention 
to  the  treasures  of  Santiago.     When  the  governor 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      37 

and  population  were  made  aware  that  the  distin- 
guished visitor  to  their  island  was  the  terrible 
"El  Draque,"  they  and  their  spiritual  advisers  as 
usual  fled  to  the  mountains,  without  neglecting 
to  take  their  money  and  priceless  possessions  with 
them.  Drake  looted  as  much  as  was  left  in  the 
city  of  wine  and  other  valuables,  but  he  got  neither 
gold  nor  silver,  and  would  probably  have  left 
Santiago  unharmed  but  for  the  horrible  murder 
of  one  of  his  sailor-boys,  whose  body  was  found 
hacked  to  pieces.  This  settled  the  doom  of  the 
finest  built  city  in  the  Old  World.  "El  Draque" 
at  once  set  fire  to  it  and  burnt  it  to  ashes,  with 
that  thoroughness  which  characterized  all  such 
dealings  in  an  age  when  barbaric  acts  justified 
more  than  equivalent  reprisals. 

It  would  have  been  a  wiser  course  for  the  govern- 
or to  have  treated  for  the  ransom  of  the  town 
than  to  have  murdered  a  poor  sailor-lad  who  was 
innocently  having  a  stroll.  It  is  balderdash  to 
talk  of  the  Spaniards  as  being  too  proud  to  treat 
with  a  person  whom  they  believed  to  be  nothing 
better  than  a  pirate.  The  Spaniards,  like  other 
nationalities,  were  never  too  proud  to  do  anything 
that  would  strengthen  or  maintain  their  suprem- 
acy. Their  apparent  pride  in  not  treating  with 
Drake  at  Santiago  and  on  other  rare  occasions 
was  really  the  acme  of  terror  at  hearing  his  name; 
there  was  neither  high  honour  nor  grandee  dignity 
connected  with  it.  As  to  Philip's  kingly  pride, 
it  consisted  in  offering  a  special  reward  of  £40,000 


38       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

to  have  Elizabeth's  great  sailor  assassinated  or 
kidnapped.  There  were  many  to  whom  the 
thought  of  the  bribe  was  fascinating.  Numerous 
attempts  were  made,  but  whenever  the  assassins 
came  within  sound  of  his  name  or  sight  of  him  or 
his  ships  they  became  possessed  of  involuntary 
twitchy  sensations,  and  fled  in  a  delirium  of  fear, 
which  was  attributed  to  his  being  a  magician. 

As  soon  as  Drake  had  avenged  the  sailor-boy's 
murder  he  sailed  for  the  West  Indies.  When  he 
got  into  the  hot  latitudes  the  plague  of  yellow 
fever  appeared,  and  nearly  three  hundred  of  his 
men  died  in  a  few  days.  Arriving  at  Dominica, 
they  found  the  Caribs  had  a  deadly  hatred  of  the 
Spanish,  and  when  they  learned  that  the  British 
were  at  war  with  Spain  they  offered  to  prescribe 
a  certain  cure  for  yellow  jack  which  was  eminently 
effectual.  After  disinfecting  the  ships,  and  getting 
supplied  with  their  requirements,  the  fleet  left 
for  San  Domingo,  via  St.  Kitts,  which  was  unin- 
habited at  that  time.  Domingo  was  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  most  wealthy  islands  in  the 
world.  Columbus  and  his  brother,  Diego,  are 
buried  in  the  cathedral  there.  The  population 
believed  themselves  to  be  immune  from  harm  or 
invasion  on  this  distant  island  home,  but  Drake 
soon  disillusioned  them.  His  devoted  lieutenant, 
Christopher  Carlile,  was  selected  as  usual  to  find 
a  suitable  channel  and  landing,  a  hazardous  and 
almost  unattainable  quest,  but  in  his  and  Drake's 
skilful  hands  their  object  was  accomplished.     The 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      39 

ships  were  brought  into  port,  and  in  his  usual 
direct  way  Drake  demanded  that  the  garrison  of 
the  castle  should  surrender  without  parley,  and 
it  was  done.  Drake  was  not  finished  with  them 
yet;  he  wished  to  know  from  the  governor  what 
terms  he  was  prepared  to  offer  in  order  that  the 
city  should  be  saved  from  pillage.  A  negro  boy 
was  sent  with  this  dispatch,  and  raging  with  the 
disgrace  of  surrendering  to  the  British  Admiral, 
an  officer  ran  a  lance  through  the  boy's  body. 
The  poor  boy  was  just  able  to  get  back,  and  died 
immediately,  close  to  where  Drake  was.  The 
Spaniards  had  allowed  their  vicious  pride  to  incite 
them  to  commit  murder  and  to  insult  the  British 
Admiral,  who  promptly  avenged  both  deeds  by 
having  two  friars  taken  to  the  place  where  the 
boy  had  been  stabbed,  and  there  hanged.  "El 
Draque"  sent  a  further  note  to  the  governor  in- 
forming him  that  unless  the  officer  who  murdered 
his  messenger  was  executed  at  once  by  the  Span- 
ish authorities  he  would  hang  two  friars  for  every 
day  that  it  was  put  off.  Needless  to  say,  no  more 
friars  were  hung,  as  the  officer  paid  the  penalty 
of  his  crime  without  further  delay.  The  lacerated 
dignity  of  the  Spaniards  was  still  further  tried  by 
the  demand  for  the  ransom  of  the  city,  and  their 
procrastination  cost  them  dear. 

Drake's  theology  was  at  variance  with  that  of 
the  Founder  of  our  faith.  His  method  was  rigid 
self-assertion,  and  the  power  of  the  strong.  The 
affront  he  conceived  to  have  been  laid  upon  him 


40       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

and  upon  the  country  he  represented  could  only 
be  wiped  out  by  martial  law.  Theoretic  babbling 
about  equality  had  no  place  in  his  ethics  of  the 
universe.  He  proceeded  to  raid  and  burn  both 
private  dwellings,  palaces,  and  magazines;  and 
the  Government  House,  which  was  reputed  to  be 
the  finest  building  in  the  world,  was  operated 
upon  for  a  month,  until  it  was  reduced  to  dust. 
These  are  some  of  the  penalties  that  would  have 
gladdened  the  heart  of  the  gallant  Beresford  and 
his  Albert  Hall  comrades  of  our  time  had  they 
been  carried  out  against  the  Germans,  who  have 
excelled  the  Spaniards  of  Philip's  reign  in  cultured 
murder  and  other  brutalities  in  a  war  that  has 
cost  William  II  his  throne  and  brought  the  period 
of  civilization  perilously  near  its  end.  It  may  be 
that  the  instability  of  petty  statesmanship  is  to 
disappear,  and  that  Providence  may  have  in  un- 
seen reserve  a  group  of  men  with  mental  and 
physical  powers  capable  of  subduing  human  viru- 
lence and  recreating  out  of  the  chaos  the  Germans 
have  made  a  new  and  enduring  civilization;  and 
when  they  shall  appear  their  advent  will  be 
applauded  by  the  stricken  world. 

Incidentally,  it  may  be  added  that  the  German 
nation,  which  has  endangered  the  existence  of 
civilization,  would  never  have  been  despised  or 
thought  ill  of  on  account  of  its  defeat  by  the  Allies. 
It  is  their  unjustifiable  method  of  beginning  the 
war,  and  the  dirty  brutal  tricks  by  which  they 
sought  to  win  it,  which  have  created  enduring 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      41 

mistrust  and  animosity  against  them.  The  law 
of  human  fairness  is  no  more  exacting  to  small 
communities  or  individuals  than  it  is  to  nations. 

Drake  continued  his  relentless  reprisals  against 
San  Domingo.  The  burning  of  British  sailors 
as  heretics  possessed  his  mind.  The  distracted 
governor  would  have  given  his  soul  to  get  rid  of 
him,  but  Drake  demanded  money,  and  this  the 
governor  pleaded  was  not  available,  but  he  was 
ultimately  forced  to  provide  25,000  ducats,  equal- 
ling £50,000.  This  was  accepted  after  the  town 
had  been  shattered  to  pieces  and  the  shipping 
destroyed.  The  cathedral  was  the  only  important 
building  left  intact,  the  probable  reason  being 
that  the  remains  of  the  great  navigator,  Columbus, 
were  entombed  there.  Already  the  mortality 
amongst  Drake's  crew  had  been  alarmingly  heavy, 
and  he  was  too  wise  a  man  to  gamble  with  their 
lives  until  the  bad  season  came  on,  so  he  settled 
up  and  hurried  away  into  the  fresh  sea  breezes, 
determined  to  give  many  more  Spanish  possessions 
a  thorough  shaking  up.  The  news  that  the  free- 
booters were  near  at  hand,  and  that  they  were 
committing  shocking  deeds  of  theft  and  destruc- 
tion on  the  way,  had  filtered  to  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  and  struck  the  somnolent  population  with 
terror.  Carthagena,  a  magnificent  city  and  capi- 
tal of  the  Spanish  Main,  was  Drake's  next  objec- 
tive. He  had  large  hopes  of  doing  well  there.  The 
health  of  most  of  his  crew  had  improved  and  was 
now  robust,  and  their  fighting  spirits  had  been 


42       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

kindled  to  a  high  pitch  by  their  gallant  chief, 
whose  eye  of  genius  was  centred  on  a  big  haul  of 
material  things.  On  arrival  off  the  port,  Carlile, 
whose  resource  and  courage  were  always  in  de- 
mand, was  put  in  charge  of  a  strong  force.  He 
led  the  attack,  mounted  the  parapets,  drove  the 
Spanish  garrison  away  in  confusion,  killed  the 
commander,  and  subsequently  destroyed  a  large 
number  of  ships  which  were  lazily  lying  in  the 
port.  Many  English  prisoners  were  released, 
which  was  a  godsend  in  filling  the  places  of  those 
who  had  died. 

The  combative  pretensions  of  the  governor  had 
received  a  severe  shock.  He  was  beaten,  and 
Drake,  like  a  true  sportsman,  asked  him  and  his 
suite  to  dine  with  him,  and  with  an  air  of  Spanish 
dignity  he  accepted.  The  occasion  was  memo- 
rable for  the  royal  way  the  distinguished  guests 
were  treated.  The  governor  was  studiously  cor- 
dial, and  obviously  wished  to  win  the  favour  of 
his  remorseless  visitors,  so  asked  Drake  and  his 
officers  to  do  him  the  honour  of  accepting  his 
hospitality  in  return,  which  they  did.  What  form 
the  interchange  of  civilities  took  is  not  quite 
clear,  but  the  governor's  apparent  amiableness 
did  not  in  any  way  move  Drake  to  exercise  gener- 
osity. His  object  was  ransom,  and  if  this  was 
agreed  to  good-naturedly,  all  the  better  for  the 
Spaniards,  but  he  was  neither  to  be  bought  nor 
sold  by  wily  tactics,  nor  won  over  by  golden- 
tongued  rhetoric.     The  price  of  the  rugged  Dev- 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      43 

onshire  sailor's  alternative  of  wild  wrath  and  ruin 
was  the  modest  sum  of  100,000  ducats  in  hard 
cash.  Mutual  convivialities  and  flowing  courte- 
sies were  at  an  end;  these  were  one  thing  and 
reparation  for  the  incarceration  and  burning  of 
unoffending  British  sailors  as  heretics  was  another. 

"  Deeds  of  blood  and  torture  can  never  be  atoned 
for  in  money  or  destruction  of  property.  I  am 
Drake,  'El  Draque'  if  you  like,  and  if  you  don't 
comply  with  my  terms,  you  shall  be  destroyed." 

It  was  his  habit  openly  to  express  himself  in 
this  way  to  Philip's  subjects,  whether  hostile  or 
not,  and  we  can  imagine  that  similar  views  were 
uttered  in  the  Carthagena  negotiations.  The 
Spaniards  regarded  his  terms  as  monstrous  im- 
piety; they  were  aghast,  pleaded  poverty,  and 
protested  and  swore  by  the  Holy  Office  that  the 
total  amount  they  could  find  in  the  whole  city 
was  only  30,000  ducats.  Drake,  with  commend- 
able prudence,  seeing  that  he  wished  to  get  away 
from  the  fever  zone  without  delay,  appears  to 
have  accepted  this  amount,  though  authorities 
are  at  variance  on  this  point.  Some  say  that  he 
held  out  for  his  first  claim  and  got  it.  I  have  not 
been  able  to  verify  which  is  the  correct  amount, 
but  in  all  probability  he  got  the  100,000  ducats. 
In  any  case,  he  piously  charged  them  with  decep- 
tion in  their  plea  of  poverty,  but  came  to  terms, 
declaring,  no  doubt,  that  his  own  magnanimity 
astonished  him. 

But  for  the  sudden  outbreak  of  sickness  amongst 


44        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

his  crew,  the  Carthaginians  would  not  have  fared 
nearly  so  well.  The  city  might  have  been  not 
only  pillaged  but  laid  in  ruins.  As  it  was,  he  had 
emptied  a  monastery  and  blown  the  harbour  forts 
to  pieces. 

Drake's  intention  was  to  visit  Panama,  but  the 
fever  had  laid  heavy  hands  on  his  men.  Only 
a  third  of  those  who  commenced  the  voyage  with 
him  were  well  enough  to  do  work  at  all,  notwith- 
standing the  replenishment  by  released  prisoners, 
so  he  was  forced  to  abandon  further  enterprises 
and  shape  his  course  homewards  as  quickly  as 
skilful  navigation  and  the  vagaries  of  wind  and 
weather  would  allow.  Great  deeds,  even  on  this 
trip,  stood  to  the  credit  of  himself  and  crew.  The 
accomplishments  were  far  below  what  was  ex- 
pected at  the  outset  in  point  of -money  value,  but 
the  priceless  feature  of  the  voyage  was  the  en- 
hanced respect  for  Drake's  name  which  had  taken 
possession  of  the  Spanish  race  in  every  part  of  the 
world  and  subsequently  made  the  defeat  of  the 
Armada  an  easier  task. 

This  eager  soul,  who  was  really  the  pioneer  of 
a  new  civilization,  had  still  to  face  hard  fate  after 
the  reluctant  abandonment  of  his  intention  to 
visit  Panama.  The  sufferings  of  the  adventurers 
from  bad  weather  and  shortness  of  water  was 
severely  felt  on  the  passage  to  Florida.  But  the 
rough  leader  never  lost  heart  or  spared  himself 
in  any  way.  He  was  obliged  to  heave  to  at  Cape 
Antonio  (Cuba),  and  here  with  indomitable  cour- 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      45 

age  went  to  work,  putting  heart  into  his  men  by 
digging  with  pick  and  shovel  in  a  way  that  would 
have  put  a  navvy  to  the  blush,  and  when  their 
efforts  were  rewarded  he  took  his  ships  through 
the  Bahama  Channel,  and  as  he  passed  a  fort 
which  the  Spaniards  had  constructed  and  used  as 
a  base  for  a  force  which  had  murdered  many  French 
Protestant  colonists  in  the  vicinity,  Drake  landed, 
found  out  the  murderous  purpose  of  the  fort,  and 
blew  it  to  pieces.  But  that  was  not  all.  He  also 
had  the  satisfaction  of  saving  the  remainder  of  an 
unsuccessful  English  settlement  founded  by  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  and  of  taking  possession  of  every- 
thing that  he  could  lay  hands  on  from  the  Spanish 
settlement  of  St.  Augustine.  This  was  the  last 
episode  of  plunder  connected  with  an  expedition 
that  was  ripe  with  thrilling  incidents,  and  added 
to  the  fame  of  the  most  enterprising  figure  of  the 
Elizabethan  reign. 

In  point  of  profit  to  those  who  had  financed 
the  voyage  it  was  not  a  success;  but  its  political 
and  ultimate  commercial  advantages  were  enor- 
mous. These  early  seamen  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  many  of  them  amateurs,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  greatest  navy  and  mercantile  marine 
of  the  world.  It  is  to  these  fascinating  adven- 
turers, too,  that  the  generations  which  followed 
are  indebted  for  the  initiative  in  human  comforts 
and  progress.  The  superficial  self-righteous  critic 
may  find  it  an  agreeable  pursuit  to  search  out 
their  blemishes;  but  these  men  cannot  be  airily 


46        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

dismissed  in  that  manner.  They  towered  above 
their  fellows,  the  supreme  product  of  the  spirit 
of  their  day  in  adventure  and  daring;  they  ful- 
filled their  great  destiny,  and  left  their  indelible 
mark  upon  the  life  of  their  nation  and  of  the 
world.  Their  great  emancipating  heroism  and  reck- 
less self-abnegation  more  than  counterbalanced  the 
faults  with  which  the  modern  mind,  judging  their 
day  by  ours,  is  too  prone  to  credit  them,  and 
whatever  their  deeds  of  perfidy  may  have  been, 
they  were  imbued  more  with  the  idea  of  patriotism 
than  with  that  of  avarice.  They  were  remark- 
able men,  nor  did  they  come  into  the  life  of  the 
nation  by  chance,  but  for  a  purpose,  and  their 
memories  are  enshrined  in  human  history. 

Drake  sailed  for  home  as  soon  as  he  had  em- 
barked what  was  left  of  Raleigh's  colonists  at 
Roanoke  River,  Virginia,  and  after  a  protracted 
and  monotonous  passage,  arrived  at  Plymouth  on 
the  28th  July,  1586.  The  population  received 
the  news  with  acclamation.  Drake  wrote  to  Lord 
Burleigh,  bemoaning  his  fate  in  having  missed  the 
gold  fleet  by  a  few  hours,  and  again  placing  his 
services  at  the  disposal  of  his  Queen  and  country. 

The  most  momentous  of  all  his  commissions, 
especially  to  his  own  country,  was  in  1587,  when 
he  destroyed  a  hundred  ships  in  Cadiz  Harbour. 
It  was  a  fine  piece  of  work,  this  "singeing  of  the 
King  of  Spain's  beard"  as  he  called  it,  and  by 
far  excelled  anything  he  had  previously  done.  He 
captured  the  San  Philip,  the  King  of  Spain's  ship, 


Drake  and  the  Fleet  Tradition      47 

which  was  the  largest  afloat.  Her  cargo  was 
valued  at  over  one  million  sterling,  in  addition 
to  which  papers  were  found  on  board  revealing 
the  wealth  of  the  East  India  trade.  The  know- 
ledge of  this  soon  found  a  company  of  capitalists, 
who  formed  the  East  India  Company,  out  of  which 
our  great  Indian  Empire  was  established.  When 
the  San  Philip  was  towed  into  Dartmouth  Har- 
bour, and  when  it  became  known  generally,  the 
whole  country  was  ablaze  with  excitement  and 
people  travelled  from  far  and  near  to  see  the 
leviathan. 

Drake  bore  himself  on  this  occasion  with  that 
sober  modesty  that  characterized  him  always  un- 
der any  circumstances.  His  reputation  stood 
higher  now  than  ever,  and  it  was  no  detriment  to 
him  that  Philip  should  shudder,  and  when  he 
became  virtuously  agitated  speak  of  him  as  "that 
fearful  man  Drake."  Everywhere  he  was  a  for- 
midable reality,  strong,  forbidding,  and  terrible; 
his  penetrating  spirit  saw  through  the  plans  of 
the  enemies  of  his  country  and  his  vigorous  counter- 
measures  were  invariably  successful.  The  exalted 
part  he  took  in  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  has 
been  briefly  referred  to  in  another  part  of  this 
book.  He  was  then  at  the  height  of  his*  imposing 
magnificence  and  fame,  but  owing  to  the  caprice 
of  his  royal  mistress,  who  had  an  insatiable  habit 
of  venting  her  Tudor  temper  indiscriminately, 
he  fell  under  her  displeasure,  and  for  a  time  was 
in   disgrace;  but   she   soon    discovered    that   his 


48       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

services,  whatever  his  lack  of  success  on  appar- 
ently rash  enterprises  may  have  been,  were  indis- 
pensable at  so  critical  a  moment.  He  was  recalled, 
and  soon  after  sent  on  his  melancholy  last  voyage. 
He  had  worn  himself  out  in  the  service  of  his 
country.  Born  at  Tavistock  in  1539,  his  eager 
spirit  passed  into  the  shadows  off  Puerto  Bello 
on  the  28th  January,  1596,  and,  as  previously 
stated,  he  was  buried  three  miles  out  at  sea,  and 
two  of  his  prizes  were  sunk  and  laid  beside  him. 

The  following  beautiful  lines  of  Sir  Henry  New- 
bolt  not  only  describe  his  patriotic  and  heroic  end, 
but  breathe  the  very  spirit  of  the  man  who  was 
one  of  the  most  striking  figures  of  the  Elizabethan 
age: 

DRAKE'S  DRUM 
3d  Verse: 

Drake,  he's  in  his  hammock  till  the  great  Armadas  come, 

(Capten,  art  tha  sleepin'  there  below  ?) 

Slung  atween  the  round  shot,  listenin'  for  the  drum, 

An'  dreamin'  arl  the  time  o'  Plymouth  Hoe. 

Call  him  on  the  deep  sea,  call  him  up  the  Sound, 

Call  him  when  ye  sail  to  meet  the  foe; 

Where  the  old  trade's  plyin,'  and  the  old  flag  fiyin,' 

They  shall  find  him  ware  an'  wakm,' 

As  they  found  him  long  ago ! 


NELSON 

AND  HIS  CIRCLE 


49 


2 
JNELSON  AND  HIS  CIRCLE 

I 

The  tradition  created  by  Drake  and  Hawkins 
was  carried  on  by  Nelson  and  Collingwood  in  a 
different  age  and  under  different  conditions,  and 
the  same  heroic  spirit  animated  them  all.  Nelson 
must  certainly  have  been  familiar  with  the  en- 
thralling tales  of  these  men  and  of  their  gallant 
colleagues,  but  without  all  the  essential  qualities 
born  in  him  he  could  not  have  been  the  victor  of 
Trafalgar.  Men  have  to  do  something  distinctive, 
that  sets  the  human  brain  on  fire,  before  they  are 
really  recognized  as  being  great;  then  all  others 
are  put  in  the  shade,  no  matter  how  necessary 
their  great  gifts  may  be  to  fill  up  the  gaps  in  the 
man  of  initiative  and  of  action.  Drake  could 
not  have  done  what  he  did  had  he  not  had  the  aid 
of  Frobisher,  and  Jervis  would  not  have  become 
Earl  St.  Vincent  had  he  not  been  supported  by 
Nelson  at  the  battle  of  that  name;  and  we  should 
never  have  seen  the  imposing  monument  erected 
in  Trafalgar  Square  had  Nelson  been  without  his 
Collingwood.     Victorious    and    valiant    perform- 

5» 


52        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

ances  do  not  come  by  chance,  and  so  it  comes  to 
pass  in  the  natural  course  of  human  law  that  if 
our  Jervises,  Nelsons,  and  Collingwoods,  who  are 
the  prototypes  of  our  present-day  heroes,  had 
not  lived,  we  should  not  have  had  our  Fishers, 
Jellicoes,  and  Beattys. 

Nelson  was  always  an  attractive  personality 
and  by  no  means  the  type  of  man  to  allow  himself 
to  be  forgotten.  He  believed  he  was  a  personage 
with  a  mission  on  earth,  and  never  an  opportunity 
was  given  him  that  did  not  confirm  this  belief  in 
himself. 

Horatio  Nelson  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Edmund 
Nelson,  and  was  born  at  Burnham  Thorpe  on  the 
29th  September,  1758.  His  mother  died  in  1767, 
and  left  eight  children.  Her  brother,  Captain 
Maurice  Suckling,  was  appointed  to  the  Raison- 
nable  three  years  after  her  death,  and  agreed,  at 
the  request  of  Horatio  himself  and  the  instigation 
of  his  father,  after  some  doubtful  comments  as  to 
the  boy's  physical  suitableness  for  the  rough  life 
of  a  sailor,  to  take  him;  so  on  the  1st  January, 
1 77 1,  he  became  a  midshipman  on  the  Raisonnable. 
On  the  22d  May  he  either  shipped  of  his  own 
accord  or  was  put  as  cabin-boy  on  a  merchant 
vessel  which  went  to  the  West  Indies,  and  ended 
his  career  in  the  merchant  service  at  the  end  of 
an  eventful  voyage.  In  July,  1772,  he  became 
midshipman  on  board  the  Triumph.  This  was 
the  real  starting-point  of  his  naval  career  and  of 
the  development  of  those  great  gifts  that  made 


NELSON. 
After  the  portrait  by  L.   F.  Abbott. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  53 

him  the  renowned  Admiral  of  the  world.  Twenty- 
two  years  after  joining  his  uncle's  ship  he  was 
made  captain  of  the  Agamemnon.  At  the  siege 
of  Calvi  in  1794  he  was  wounded  in  the  right  eye 
and  lost  the  sight  of  it.  Three  years  afterwards 
he  lost  his  right  arm  while  commanding  an  attack 
on  Santa  Cruz,  and  although  he  had  put  so  many 
sensational  events  into  his  life  up  to  that  time, 
it  was  not  until  the  battle  of  St.  Vincent  that  he 
began  to  attract  attention.  He  had  been  pro- 
moted R ear-Admiral  before  the  news  of  the  battle 
was  known,  and  when  the  news  reached  England 
the  public  enthusiasm  was  irrepressible.  Jervis 
was  made  an  Earl,  with  £3000  a  year  pension, 
and  the  King  requested  that  he  should  take  his 
title  from  the  name  of  the  battle.  Nelson  refused 
a  baronetcy,  and  was  made,  at  his  own  request,  a 
Knight  of  the  Bath,  receiving  the  thanks  of  the 
City  of  London  and  a  sword.  All  those  who  were 
in  prominent  positions  or  came  to  the  front  in 
this  conflict  received  something.  It  was  not  by 
a  freak  of  chance  that  the  authorities  began  to 
see  in  Nelson  the  elements  of  an  extraordinary 
man.  Nor  was  it  mere  chance  that  they  so  far 
neglected  him  that  he  was  obliged  to  force  himself 
upon  the  Admiralty  in  order  to  get  them  to  employ 
him.  The  nation  was  in  need  of  a  great  spirit, 
and  Providence  had  been  preparing  one  for  many 
years  before  the  ruling  authorities  discovered  that 
Nelson  was  their  man  of  the  future. 

For  several  months  he  was  tearing  about  the 


54        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

seas  in  search  of  the  French  fleet.  He  popped 
into  Naples  on  the  17th  June,  1798,  ostensibly  to 
know  if  anything  had  been  heard  of  it,  and  no 
doubt  he  took  the  opportunity  of  having  a  word 
with  Sir  William  and  Lady  Hamilton,  who  were 
to  come  so  romantically  into  his  life.  He  found 
the  French  fleet  at  anchor  in  Aboukir  Bay  and 
sailed  upon  it  with  such  amazing  audacity  that 
the  heart  was  knocked  out  of  them  at  the  very 
outset.  Neither  the  French  Admiral  nor  anybody 
else  would  have  expected  the  British  fleet  to  run 
their  ships  between  them  and  the  shore  at  the 
risk  of  grounding.  The  Culloden  did  ground. 
The  French  had  eleven  out  of  thirteen  ships  put 
out  of  action,  but  the  British  fleet  suffered  severely 
also,  and  the  loss  of  men  was  serious. x  Out  of  a 
total  of  7401  men,  218  were  killed  and  678  wounded. 
Nelson  himself  was  badly  wounded  on  the  fore- 
head, and  as  the  skin  fell  down  on  his  good  eye 
and  the  blood  streamed  into  it,  he  was  both  dazed 
and  blinded.  He  shouted  to  Captain  Berry  as 
he  was  staggering  to  a  fall,  "I  am  killed;  remem- 
ber me  to  my  wife."     But  there  was  a  lot  more 

*  BATTLE  OF  ABOUKIR 

At  the  battle  of  Aboukir  Bay  the  British  losses  were  reported  to  be 
896  killed  and  wounded.  Only  one  captain  fell.  Of  the  French,  5225 
perished,  and  3105,  including  wounded,  were  sent  on  shore. 

When  the  battle  was  over,  Nelson  gave  instructions  that  thanks- 
giving aboard  every  ship  should  be  offered  to  Almighty  God  for  giving 
His  Majesty's  forces  the  victory.  It  is  the  author's  opinion  that  but 
for  a  good  deal  of  slashing  genius  and  not  a  little  of  the  devil  on 
the  part  of  Nelson  and  his  men  the  French  would  not  have  fared  so 
badly. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  55 

work  for  him  to  do  before  the  fatal  day.  He  was 
carried  below,  believing  the  injury  would  prove 
fatal,  in  spite  of  the  assurances  to  the  contrary  of 
the  surgeon  who  was  in  attendance. 

Although  Nelson's  courage  can  never  be  doubted, 
there  is  something  very  curious  in  his  constant, 
eccentric  foreboding  of  death  and  the  way  in 
which  he  scattered  his  messages  about  to  one  and 
another.  This  habit  increased  amazingly  after 
his  conflict  with  the  French  at  the  Nile.  He 
seems  to  have  had  intermittent  attacks  of  hypo- 
chondria. The  wound  incident  at  Aboukir  must 
have  given  great  amusement  as  well  as  anxiety 
to  those  about  him.  Unquestionably  the  wound 
had  the  appearance  at  first  of  being  mortal,  but 
the  surgeon  soon  gave  a  reassuring  opinion,  and 
after  binding  up  the  ugly  cut  he  requested  his 
patient  to  remain  below.  But  Nelson,  as  soon  as 
he  knew  he  was  not  going  to  die,  became  bored 
with  the  inactivity  and  insisted  on  writing  a  dis- 
patch to  the  Admiralty.  His  secretary  was  too 
excited  to  carry  out  his  wishes,  so  he  tackled  it 
himself.  But  his  suffering  being  great  and  his 
mind  in  a  condition  of  whirling  confusion,  he  did 
not  get  far  beyond  the  beginning,  which  intimated 
that  "Almighty  God  had  blessed  His  Majesty's 
arms."  The  battle  raged  on.  The  Orient  was 
set  on  fire  and  her  destruction  assured.  When 
Nelson  was  informed  of  the  terrible  catastrophe 
to  the  great  French  line-of-battle  ship,  he  de- 
manded to  be  assisted  to  the  deck,  whereupon  he 


56       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

gave  instructions  that  his  only  boat  not  destroyed 
was  to  be  sent  with  the  Vanguard's  first  lieutenant 
to  render  assistance  to  the  crew.  He  remained 
on  deck  until  the  Orient  blew  up,  and  was  then 
urged  to  go  to  bed. 

But  sleep  under  the  circumstances  and  in  view 
of  his  own  condition  would  not  come.  All  night 
long  he  was  sending  messages  directing  the  plan 
of  battle  the  news  of  which  was  to  enthrall  the 
civilized  world.  Nelson  himself  was  not  satisfied. 
"Not  one  of  the  French  vessels  would  have 
escaped,"  he  said,  "if  it  had  pleased  God  that  he 
had  not  been  wounded."  This  was  rather  a  slur 
on  those  who  had  given  their  best  blood  and 
really  won  the  battle.  Notwithstanding  the  ap- 
parent egotism  of  this  outburst,  there  are  sound 
reasons  for  believing  that  the  Admiral's  inspiring 
influence  was  much  discounted  by  his  not  being 
able  to  remain  on  deck.  The  sight  of  his  guiding, 
magnetic  figure  had  an  amazing  effect  on  his  men, 
but  I  think  it  must  be  admitted  that  Nelson's 
head  was  not  in  a  condition  at  that  time  to  be 
entirely  relied  upon,  and  those  in  charge  of  the 
different  ships  put  the  finishing  touches  to  the 
victory  that  was  won  by  the  force  of  his  courage 
and  commanding  genius  in  the  initial  stages  of 
the  struggle. 

II 

Nelson  was  a  true  descendant  of  a  race  of  men 
who  had  never  faltered  in  the  traditional  belief 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  57 

that  the  world  should  be  governed  and  dominated 
by  the  British.  His  King,  his  country,  and  par- 
ticularly the  profession  to  which  he  belonged, 
were  to  him  the  supreme  authorities  whose  destiny 
it  was  to  direct  the  affairs  of  the  universe.  With 
unfailing  comic  seriousness,  intermixed  with  occa- 
sional explosions  of  bitter  violence,  he  placed  the 
French  low  down  in  the  scale  of  the  human  family. 
There  was  scarcely  a  sailor  adjective  that  was  not 
applied  to  them.  Carlyle,  in  later  years,  desig- 
nated the  voice  of  France  as  "a  confused  bab- 
blement from  the  gutters"  and  "scarcely  human"; 
"a  country  indeed  with  its  head  cut  off";  but 
this  quotation  does  not  reach  some  of  the  pictur- 
esque heights  of  nautical  language  that  was  in- 
vented by  Nelson  to  describe  his  view  of  them. 
Both  he  and  many  of  his  fellow-countrymen 
regarded  the  chosen  chief  on  whom  the  French 
nation  had  democratically  placed  an  imperial 
crown  as  the  embodiment  of  a  wild  beast. 

The  great  Admiral  was  always  whole-hearted 
in  his  declamation  against  the  French  people  and 
their  leaders  who  as  England's  allies  have  been 
fighting  against  that  country  which  now  is,  and 
which  Napoleon  predicted  to  his  dying  day  would 
become,  one  of  the  most  imperious,  inhuman  foes 
to  civilization.  Nelson  and  his  government  at  that 
time  thought  it  a  merciful  high  policy  of  brother- 
hood to  protect  and  re-create  Prussia  out  of  the 
wreck  to  which  Napoleon  had  reduced  it;  the 
result  being  that  the  military  spirit  of  Prussia  has 


58       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

been  a  growing,  determined  menace  to  the  peace 
of  the  world  and  to  the  cause  of  human  liberty 
in  every  form  since  the  downfall  of  the  man  who 
warned  us  at  the  time  from  his  exiled  home  on  the 
rock  of  St.  Helena  that  England's  policy  would 
ultimately  reflect  with  a  vengeance  upon  ourselves, 
and  involve  the  whole  world  in  a  great  effort  to 
save  itself  from  destruction.  He  foresaw  that 
Prussia  would  inveigle  and  bully  the  smaller 
German  States  into  unification  with  herself,  and, 
having  cunningly  accomplished  this,  that  her 
perfidy  would  proceed  to  consolidate  the  united 
fabric  into  a  formidable  power  which  would  crush 
all  others  by  its  military  superiority;  this  dream 
of  universal  control  of  human  life  and  affairs  was 
at  one  time  nearly  realized. 

The  German  Empire  has  bankrupted  herself  in 
men,  necessaries  of  life,  and  money.  But  that  in 
no  degree  minimizes  the  disaster  she  has  wrought 
on  those  who  have  had  to  bleed  at  every  pore  to 
avoid  annihilation.  The  Allies,  as  well  as  the 
Central  Powers,  are  no  longer  going  concerns.  It 
will  take  generations  to  get  back  to  the  point  at 
which  we  started  in  19 14.  But  the  tragic  thought 
of  all  is  the  enormous  sacrifice  of  life,  and  the  men- 
tal and  physical  wrecks  that  have  survived  the 
savage,  brutal  struggle  brought  on  a  world  that 
was,  and  wished  to  remain,  at  peace,  when  in  1914 
the  Central  Powers  arrogantly  forced  the  pace 
which  caused  an  alliance  to  be  formed  quickly 
by  their  enemies  to  save  them  from  the  doom 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  59 

which  Napoleon,  with  his  clear  vision,  had  predicted 
would  come. 

It  was  fitting  that  Nelson  should  by  every  con- 
ceivable means  adopt  methods  of  declamation 
against  the  French,  if  by  doing  so  he  thought  it 
would  inspire  the  men  whom  he  commanded  with 
the  same  conquering  spirit  he  himself  possessed. 
His  country  was  at  war  with  the  French,  and  he 
was  merely  one  of  the  instruments  appointed  to 
defeat  them,  and  this  may  account  for  his  ebulli- 
tions of  hatred  from  time  to  time.  I  have  found, 
however,  no  record  that  would  in  any  way  show 
that  it  was  intended  as  surface  policy,  so  it  may 
be  concluded  that  his  dislike  was  as  deep-seated 
as  it  appeared.  Nelson  never  seems  to  have 
shown  evidences  of  being  a  humbug  by  saying 
things  which  he  did  not  believe.  He  had  a  whole- 
some dislike  of  the  French  people  and  of  Bona- 
parte, who  was  their  idol  at  that  time.  But 
neither  he  nor  his  government  can  be  credited 
with  the  faculty  of  being  students  of  human  life. 
He  and  they  believed  that  Paris  was  the  centre  of 
all  that  was  corrupt  and  brutal.  Napoleon,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  no  real  hatred  of  the  British 
people,  but  during  his  wars  with  their  govern- 
ment his  avowed  opinion  was  that  "all  the  ills, 
and  all  the  scourges  that  afflict  mankind,  came 
from  London."  Both  were  wrong  in  their  con- 
clusions. They  simply  did  not  understand  each 
other's  point  of  view  in  the  great  upheaval  that 
was  disturbing  the  world.     The  British  were  not 


60       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

only  jealous  and  afraid  of  Napoleon's  genius  and 
amazing  rise  to  eminence — which  they  attributed 
to  his  inordinate  ambition  to  establish  himself 
as  the  dominating  factor  in  the  affairs  of  the  uni- 
verse— but  they  determined  that  his  power  should 
not  only  not  be  acknowledged,  but  destroyed, 
and  their  policy  after  twenty  years  of  bitter  war 
was  completely  accomplished. 

The  merits  or  demerits  of  British  policy  must 
always  remain  a  matter  of  controversy.  It  is  too 
big  a  question  to  deal  with  here.  Napoleon  said 
himself  that  "everything  in  the  life  of  man  is 
subject  to  calculation;  the  good  and  evil  must  be 
equally  balanced."  Other  true  sayings  of  his 
indicate  that  he,  at  any  rate,  was  a  student  of 
human  life,  and  knew  how  fickle  fortune  is  un- 
der certain  conditions.  "Reprisals,"  he  declared, 
"are  but  a  sad  resource";  and  again,  no  doubt 
dwelling  on  his  own  misfortunes,  but  with  vivid 
truth  all  the  same,  he  declares  that  "the  allies 
gained  by  victory  will  turn  against  you  upon  the 
bare  whisper  of  our  defeat." 


Ill 

After  his  victory  on  the  Nile,  Nelson  fully  ex- 
pected to  be  created  a  viscount,  and  his  claim 
was  well  supported  by  Hood,  his  old  Admiral. 
He  was  made  Baron  Nelson  of  the  Nile,  and  given 
a  pension  of  £2000  per  annum — a  poor  recompense 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  61 

for  the  great  service  he  had  rendered  to  his  country. 
But  that  was  by  no  means  the  measure  of  the 
public  gratitude.  He  was  acclaimed  from  every 
corner  of  Great  Britain  as  the  national  hero.  The 
City  of  London  presented  him  with  a  two-hundred 
guinea  sword,  and  a  vote  of  thanks  to  himself, 
officers,  and  men.  There  was  much  prayer  and 
thanksgiving,  and  several  women  went  as  daft  as 
brushes  over  him.  One  said  her  heart  was  abso- 
lutely bursting  with  all  sorts  of  sensations.  "I 
am  half  mad/'  says  she,  and  any  one  who  reads 
the  letter  will  conclude  that  she  understated  her 
mental  condition.  But  of  all  the  many  letters 
received  by  Nelson  none  surpasses  in  extravagance 
of  adulation  that  written  by  Amy  Lyon,  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  village  blacksmith,  born  at  Great  Neston 
in  Cheshire,  in  1761,  who  had  come  to  London  in 
the  early  part  of  1780,  fallen  into  evil  ways,  and 
given  birth  to  a  little  girl.  She  was  then  left 
destitute  and  sank  as  low  as  it  is  possible  for  a 
woman  to  do.  She  rose  out  of  the  depths  into 
which  she  had  fallen  by  appearing  as  the  Goddess 
of  Health  in  the  exhibition  of  a  James  Graham. 
Sir  Henry  Featherstonehaugh  took  her  under  his 
protection  for  close  on  twelve  months,  but  owing 
to  her  extravagance  and  faithlessness  he  turned 
her  out  when  within  a  few  months  of  a  second 
child,  which  was  stillborn.  The  first  was  handed 
over  to  her  grandmother  to  take  care  of.  Charles 
Greville,  the  second  son  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
then  took  her  to  live  with  him.     She  had  intimate 


62       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

relations  with  him  while  she  was  still  Feather- 
stonehaugh's  mistress,  and  he  believed  the  child 
about  to  be  born  was  his.  At  this  time  Amy  Lyon 
changed  her  name  to  Emily  Hart.  Greville  went 
to  work  on  business  lines.  He  struck  a  bargain 
that  all  her  previous  lovers  were  to  be  dropped, 
and  under  this  compact  she  lived  with  him  in  a 
respectable  manner  for  nearly  four  years.  He 
gave  her  some  education,  but  she  seems  to  have 
had  natural  genius,  and  her  beauty  was  undisputed. 
Emily  Hart  sat  to  Romney, "  the  artist,  and  it 
is  said  that  twenty-three  portraits  were  painted, 
though  some  writers  have  placed  the  number  at 
over  forty.  Marinda,  Sibyl,  and  the  Spinstress 
were  amongst  them.  The  pictures  bring  high 
prices;  one,  I  think  called  Sensibility,  brought, 
in  1890,  over  £3000.  Notwithstanding  her  lowly 
birth  (which  has  no  right  to  stop  any  one's  path 
to  greatness)  and  lack  of  chastity,  she  had  some- 
thing uncommon  about  her  that  was  irresistibly 
attractive.  Sir  William  Hamilton,  Greville's  uncle, 
returned  to  England  some  time  in  1784  from  Naples, 
where  he  was  the  British  Minister.  It  was  said 
that  he  was  in  quest  of  a  second  wife,  the  first 
having  died  some  two  years  before.  Greville 
did  not  take  kindly  to  the  idea  of  Sir  William 
marrying  again,  because  he  was  his  heir.  He 
thought  instead  that,  being  in  financial  trouble 
himself,  he  would  try  to  plant  Emma  on  his  uncle, 

1  Portraits  painted  by  poor  Romney  for  £40,  or  less,  sell  for  many 
thousands  at  Christie's  in  these  days. 


LADY   HAMILTON    AS   "  A    SIBYL." 

After  the   Painting  by   George  Romney. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  63 

not  with  the  object  of  marriage,  but  of  her  be* 
coming  his  mistress.  Sir  William  was  captivated 
with  the  girl,  which  made  it  easy  for  the  shameless 
nephew  to  persuade  his  uncle  to  take  her  off  his 
hands.  Emma,  however,  was  in  love  with  Gre- 
ville,  and  there  were  indications  of  revolt  when  the 
astute  lady  discovered  that  serious  negotiations 
were  proceeding  for  her  transference  from  nephew 
to  uncle.  It  took  twelve  months  to  arrive  at  a 
settlement. 

There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  signed 
agreement,  but  there  certainly  was  a  tacit  under- 
standing that  Sir  William  was  to  assist  Greville 
out  of  his  difficulties,  in  return  for  which  Emma 
was  to  join  him  at  Naples,  ostensibly  as  a  visitor. 
She  writes  imploringly  to  Greville  to  answer  her 
letters,  but  never  an  answer  came,  and  in  utter 
despair  she  tells  him  at  last  that  she  will  not  be- 
come his  uncle's  concubine,  and  threatens  to  make 
Hamilton  marry  her.  This  poor  wretched  woman 
was  human,  after  all,  and  indeed  she  gave  con- 
vincing proofs  of  many  high  qualities  in  after 
years,  but  in  the  passion  of  her  love  for  the  dis- 
solute scamp  who  bartered  her  away  she  pleaded 
for  that  touch  of  human  compassion  that  never 
came.  She  knew  that  her  reprobate  lover  was 
fearful  lest  she  should  induce  his  uncle  to  marry 
her,  and  she  may  have  had  an  instinctive  feeling 
that  it  was  part  of  the  contract  that  she  was  to 
be  warded  off  if  any  attempt  of  the  kind  were 
made  likely  to  endanger  his  prospects  of  becom- 


64       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

ing  Hamilton's  heir.  His  indifference  made  her 
venomously  malignant,  and  she  sent  him  a  last 
stab  that  would  at  least  give  him  a  troubled  mind, 
even  though  it  should  not  cause  him  to  recall  her; 
she  would  then  pursue  her  revenge  by  ignoring 
him. 

It  is  a  sordid  story  which  smears  the  pages  of 
British  history. 

Emma  lived  with  the  British  Ambassador  at 
Naples  as  his  mistress.  He  was  popular  in  this 
city  of  questionable  morals  at  that  time.  She 
was  beautiful  and  developed  remarkable  talents 
as  a  singer,  and  was  a  bright,  witty,  fascinating 
conversationalist.  She  worked  hard  at  her  studies, 
and  became  a  fluent  speaker  of  the  Italian  lan- 
guage. Hamilton  had  great  consideration  for 
her,  and  never  risked  having  her  affronted  because 
of  the  liaison.  Her  singing  was  a  triumph.  It 
is  said  she  was  offered  £6000  to  go  to  Madrid  for 
three  years  and  £2000  for  a  season  in  London. 
She  invented  classic  attitudes.     Goethe  said  that 

Sir  William  Hamilton,  after  long  love  and  study  of  art,  has 
at  last  discovered  the  most  perfect  of  the  wonders  of  nature 
and  art  in  a  beautiful  young  woman.  She  lives  with  him, 
and  is  about  twenty  years  old.  She  is  very  handsome,  and 
of  a  beautiful  figure.  What  the  greatest  artists  have  aimed 
at  is  shown  in  perfection,  in  movement,  in  ravishing  variety. 
Standing,  kneeling,  sitting,  lying  down,  grave  or  sad,  play- 
ful, exulting,  repentant,  wanton,  menacing,  anxious,  all 
mental  states  follow  rapidly  one  after  another.  With  won- 
derful taste  she  suits  the  folding  of  her  veil  to  each  expres- 
sion, and  with  the  same  handkerchief  makes  every  kind  of 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  65 

head-dress.  The  Old  Knight  holds  the  Light  for  her,  and 
enters  into  the  exhibition  with  his  whole  soul. 

Sir  William  had  twelve  of  the  "  Representations  " 
done  by  a  German  artist  named  Frederick  Rehberg, 
entitled  "Drawings  faithfully  copied  from  Nature 
at  Naples." 

Hamilton  married  Emma  in  1791  in  England, 
and  when  they  returned  to  Naples  she  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Queen,  and  ultimately  became  on 
intimate  terms  with  Her  Majesty  of  Naples,  whose 
questionable  morals  were  freely  spoken  of.  Emma 
quickly  attained  a  high  social  standing,  but  it 
is  doubtful  whether  she  exercised  that  influence 
over  the  Queen  of  which  she  liked  to  boast. 

In  September,  1793,  Nelson  was  at  Naples  by 
orders,  and  was  the  guest  of  the  Hamiltons  for 
a  few  days.  He  had  not  been  there  for  five  years, 
yet  the  precious  Emma,  without  decorum  or  cere- 
mony, sent  him  a  written  whirlwind  of  congratula- 
tions on  the  occasion  of  his  victory  at  the  Nile. 
Every  line  of  the  letters  sends  forth  crackling 
sparks  of  fiery  passion.  She  begins,  "My  dear, 
dear  Sir,"  tells  him  she  is  delirious,  that  she  fainted 
and  fell  on  her  side,  "and  am  hurt,"  when  she 
heard  the  joyful  news.  She  "would  feel  it  a  glory 
to  die  in  such  a  cause,"  but  she  cannot  die  until 
she  has  embraced  "the  Victor  of  the  Nile."  Then 
she  proceeds  to  describe  the  transports  of  Maria 
Carolina.  "She  fainted  too,  cried,  kissed  her 
husband,  her  children,  walked,  frantic  with  plea- 
sure, about  the  room,  cried,  kissed  and  embraced 


66       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

everybody  near  her."  Then  she  continues,  "Oh! 
brave  Nelson!  Oh!  God  bless  and  protect  our 
brave  deliverer!  Oh!  Nelson,  Nelson!  Oh! 
Victor!  Oh!  that  my  swollen  heart  could  now 
tell  him  personally  what  we  owe  to  him.  My 
dress  from  head  to  foot  is  a  la  Nelson.  My  ear- 
rings are  Nelson's  anchors."  She  sends  him  some 
sonnets,  and  avers  that  she  must  have  taken  a 
ship  to  "send  all  what  is  written  on  you."  And 
so  she  goes  on,  throwing  herself  into  his  arms, 
metaphorically  speaking,  at  every  sentence. 

When  the  Vanguard  arrived  at  Naples,  Nelson 
invited  Lady  Hamilton  on  board  and  she  was  no 
sooner  on  the  deck  than  she  made  one  dramatic 
plunge  at  him,  and  proceeded  to  faint  on  the  poor 
shattered  man's  breast.  Nelson,  whose  besetting 
weakness  was  love  of  approbation,  became  intoxi- 
cated with  the  lady's  method  of  making  love. 
Poor  gallant  fellow!  He  was,  like  many  another, 
the  victim  of  human  weakness.  He  immediately 
believed  that  he  and  Emma  had  "found  each 
other,"  and  allowed  himself  to  be  flattered  with 
refined  delicacy  into  a  liaison  which  became  a 
fierce  passion,  and  tested  the  loyalty  of  his  closest 
friends  to  breaking-point.  How  infinitely  pathetic 
is  this  piteous  story  from  beginning  to  end! 

Like  most  sailors,  Nelson  had  a  fervent,  reli- 
gious belief  in  the  Eternal,  and  never  went  to 
battle  without  casting  himself  on  the  mercy  of  the 
Infinite  Pity  which  alone  can  give  solace.  He 
was  fearless  and  strong  in  the  affairs  of  his  pro- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  67 

fession,  and  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that,  even 
if  it  went  no  deeper,  he  had  a  mystic  fear  of  God, 
and  was  lost  to  all  other  fear. 

I  think  it  was  Carlyle  who  said,  "God  save  us 
from  the  madness  of  popularity.  It  invariably 
injures  those  who  get  it."  There  never  was  a 
truer  thing  said,  and  it  is  sadly  true  of  our  great 
national  hero.  Not  many  months  had  passed 
before  the  dispenser  of  his  praises  had  become  his 
proprietor.  It  is  doubtful  whether  Emma  ever 
loved  him,  but  that  does  not  concern  any  one. 
What  does  concern  us  is  the  imperious  domination 
she  exercised  over  him.  No  flighty  absurdities 
of  fiction  can  equal  the  extravagance  of  his  devo- 
tion to  her,  and  his  unchecked  desire  to  let  every- 
one know  it.  He  even  informs  Lady  Nelson  that 
Lady  Hamilton  is  the  very  best  woman  in  the 
world  and  an  honour  to  her  sex,  and  that  he  had 
a  pride  in  having  her  as  a  friend.  He  writes  to 
Lord  St.  Vincent  that  she  is  "an  angel/'  and  has 
honoured  him  in  being  his  Ambassadress  to  the 
Queen  and  is  worthy  of  his  confidence.  Again 
he  writes,  "Our  dear  Lady  Hamilton,  whom  to 
see  is  to  admire,  but  to  know  is  to  give  added 
honour  and  respect;  her  head  and  heart  surpass 
her  beauty,  which  cannot  be  equalled  by  anything 
I  have  seen." 

It  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  a  man  could 
fall  so  violently  in  love  with  this  extraordinary 
creature  and  permit  her  to  come  so  intimately 
into  his  life  without  injury  to  his  judgment  and 


68       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

to  those  keen  mental  qualities  which  were  needed 
at  that  time  in  the  service  of  his  country.  Such 
loss  of  control  must  surely  have  been  followed  by 
mental  and  intellectual  deterioration.  This  lady 
of  varied  antecedents  was  the  intermediary  be- 
tween the  Court  of  Naples  and  himself,  and  it  is 
now  an  authentic  fact  that  it  was  on  the  advice 
of  the  Queen  and  Emma  that  Naples  entered  into 
a  war,  the  result  of  which  was  the  complete  defeat 
of  the  Neapolitans;  the  Court  and  the  Hamiltons 
had  to  fly  to  Palermo  and  Nelson  again  lived  with 
the  Minister  and  his  wife.  He  again  pours  out 
the  virtues  and  charms  of  Lady  Hamilton,  to 
whom  he  gives  the  credit  of  engineering  the  em- 
barkation of  the  Royal  Family  and  two  and  a 
half  million  sterling  aboard  the  Vanguard.  After 
giving  St.  Vincent  another  dose  of  Emma,  he  goes 
on  to  say,  "It  is  my  duty  to  tell  your  Lordship 
the  obligations  which  the  whole  Royal  Family, 
as  well  as  myself,  are  under  on  this  trying  occasion 
to  her  Ladyship."  Her  Ladyship,  still  hanker- 
ing after  her  old  friend  Greville,  writes  him,  "My 
dear  adorable  queen  and  I  weep  together,  and 
now  that  is  our  only  comfort/'  It  is  no  concern 
of  ours,  but  it  looks  uncommonly  as  though  Gre- 
ville still  held  the  field,  and  the  opinion  of  many 
that  Nelson  would  not  have  had  much  chance 
against  her  former  lover  is  borne  out  by  many 
facts. 

Amongst  the  saddest  stories  that  raged  about 
the  Hamiltons,  their  friends,  and  Nelson  was  the 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  69 

scandal  of  gambling  for  large  stakes.  Some  are 
persistent  in  the  assertion  that  the  report  was  well 
founded,  and  others  that  it  was  not  so  bad  as  it 
was  made  out  to  be.  Lady  Hamilton  asserted 
that  the  stories  were  all  falsehoods  invented  by 
the  Jacobinical  party,  but  her  Ladyship's  veracity 
was  never  to  be  relied  upon.  Perhaps  a  founda- 
tion of  truth  and  a  large  amount  of  exaggeration 
sums  up  the  reports,  so  we  must  let  it  go  at  that. 
Troubridge  seems  to  have  been  convinced  that 
his  Admiral  was  in  the  midst  of  a  fast  set,  for  he 
sends  a  most  imploring  remonstrance  to  him  to 
get  out  of  it  and  have  no  more  incense  puffed  in 
his  face.  This  was  fine  advice,  but  the  victor  of 
the  Nile  made  no  response. 


IV 


Nelson  was  little  known  to  his  countrymen 
before  the  St.  Vincent  battle.  But  after  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Nile  his  name  became  immortal,  and 
he  could  take  any  liberty  he  liked  with  our  national 
conventionalisms.  Even  his  love  affairs  were 
regarded  as  heroics.  He  refused  occasionally  to 
carry  out  instructions  when  he  thought  his  own 
plans  were  better,  and  it  was  winked  at;  but  had 
any  of  them  miscarried,  the  memory  of  St.  Vincent 
and  the  Nile  would  not  have  lived  long. 

When  he  arrived  with  the  Hamiltons  in  London 
after  his  long  absence  and  victorious  record,  the 


70       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

mob,  as  usual,  took  the  horses  from  the  carriage 
and  dragged  him  along  Cheapside  amid  tumul- 
tuous cheers.  Whenever  he  appeared  in  public 
the  same  thing  happened.  At  Court,  things  were 
different.  His  reception  was  offensively  cold, 
and  George  III  ran  some  risk  when  he  affronted 
his  most  popular  subject  by  turning  his  back  on 
him.  Whatever  private  indiscretions  Nelson  may 
have  been  guilty  of,  nothing  could  justify  so  un- 
grateful an  act  of  ill-mannered  snobbery.  The 
King  should  have  known  how  to  distinguish  be- 
tween private  weakness,  however  unconventional, 
and  matchless  public  service.  But  for  the  fine 
genius  and  patriotism  of  this  noble  fellow,  he 
might  have  lost  his  crown.  The  temper  of  a  capri- 
cious public  in  an  era  of  revolution  should  not  be 
tested  by  freaks  of  royal  self-righteousness,  while 
its  imagination  is  being  stirred  by  the  deeds  of  a 
national  hero.  His  action  might  have  brought 
the  dignity  of  George's  kingliness  into  the  gutter 
of  ridicule,  which  would  have  been  a  public  mis- 
fortune. 

The  King's  treatment  of  Nelson  was  worse  than 
tactless;  it  was  an  impertinence.  King  Edward 
VII,  whose  wisdom  and  tact  could  always  be 
trusted,  might  have  disapproved,  as  strongly  as 
did  George  III,  Nelson's  disregard  of  social  con- 
ventions, but  he  would  have  received  him  on 
grounds  of  high  public  service,  and  have  let  his 
private  faults,  if  he  knew  of  them,  pass  unnoticed, 
instead  of  giving  him  an  inarticulate  snub.     Still 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  71 

a  genius  of  naval  distinction,  or  any  other,  has  no 
right  to  claim  exemption  from  a  law  that  governs 
a  large  section  of  society,  or  to  suppose  that  he 
may  not  be  criticized  or  even  ostracized  if  he  de- 
fiantly offends  the  susceptibilities  of  our  moral 
national  life.  And  it  is  rather  a  big  tax  on  one's 
patience  for  a  man,  because  of  his  exalted  position 
and  distinguished  deeds  of  valour  and  high  serv- 
ices rendered  to  the  State,  to  expect  that  he  may 
be  granted  licence  to  parade  his  gallantries  with 
women  in  boastful  indifference  to  the  moral  law 
that  governs  the  lives  of  a  large  section  of  the 
community.  There  are  undoubtedly  cases  of  ill- 
assorted  unions,  but  it  does  not  lie  within  our  pro- 
vince to  judge  such  cases.  They  may  be  victims 
of  a  hard  fate  far  beyond  the  knowledge  of  the 
serene  critics,  whose  habit  of  life  is  to  sneak  into 
the  sacred  affairs  of  others,  while  their  own  may 
be  in  need  of  vigilant  enquiry  and  adjustment. 

It  would  hardly  be  possible,  with  the  facts  be- 
fore us,  to  say  a  word  in  mitigation  of  Nelson's 
ostentatious  infatuation  for  Lady  Hamilton,  were 
it  not  that  he  can  never  be  judged  from  the  same 
standpoint  as  ordinary  mortals.  That  is  not  to 
say  that  a  man,  mentally  constituted  as  he  was, 
should  not  be  amenable  to  established  social  laws. 

Nelson  was  a  compound  of  peculiarities,  like 
most  men  who  are  put  into  the  world  to  do  some- 
thing great.  He  was  amusingly  vain,  while  his 
dainty  vanity  so  obscured  his  judgment  that  he 
could  not  see  through  the  most  fulsome  flattery, 


72       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

especially  that  of  women.  At  the  same  time  he 
was  professionally  keen,  with  a  clear-seeing  intel- 
lect, dashing,  flawless  courage,  and  a  mind  that 
quickly  grasped  the  weak  points  of  the  enemy's 
position  or  formation.  He  fought  the  old  form  of 
sea  warfare  by  methods  that  were  exclusively  his, 
and  sent  his  opponents  staggering  into  confusion. 
Once  a  plan  of  battle  had  been  arranged,  he  never 
faltered  in  his  judgment,  and  only  manoeuvred 
as  circumstances  arose,  but  always  with  that  un- 
expected rush  and  resource  which  carried  with  it 
certain  victory. 

Nelson's  great  talents  and  his  victories  caused 
society  outwardly  to  overlook  his  connection  with 
the  notorious  Lady  Hamilton.  But  the  gossips 
were  always  at  work.  On  this  point  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  realized  that  he  was  playing  pranks 
with  society,  though  there  were  abundant  evidences 
of  it.  He  was  offended  because  at  Dresden,  on 
their  way  to  England,  the  Electress  refused  to 
receive  his  mistress  on  account  of  her  antecedents, 
and  no  Court  was  held  during  their  stay.  Of 
course  Emma  was  given  the  cold  shoulder  in 
England  by  the  Court  and  by  society.  Nelson 
told  his  friend  Collingwood  of  his  own  treatment, 
and  added  that,  either  as  a  public  or  private  man, 
he  wished  nothing  undone  which  he  had  done. 
He  told  Collingwood  of  his  cold  reception  by  the 
King,  but  it  seems  quite  obvious  that  he  main- 
tained his  belief  that  his  connection  with  Emma 
had  no  right  to  be  questioned  by  His  Majesty  or 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  73 

any  of  his  subjects,  and  he  held  this  view  to  the 
last.  He  would  have  none  of  the  moralists'  cant 
lavished  on  him,  and  by  his  consistent  attitude 
seemed  to  say,  "Hands  off  my  private  life!  If 
I  did  introduce  Lady  Hamilton  to  my  wife  at  her 
apartments  on  my  arrival  in  England  after  two 
and  a  half  years'  absence,  when  she  was  on  the 
point  of  becoming  the  mother  of  Horatia,  what 
business  is  that  of  yours?  I  will  have  none  of 
your  abstract  morality.  Get  away,  and  clean  up 
your  own  morals  before  you  talk  to  me  of  mine." 
The  above  is  what  I  think  a  man  of  Nelson's 
temperament  might  say  to  the  people  who  wished 
to  warn  him  against  the  dangerous  course  he  was 
pursuing.  Lady  Nelson  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  a  woman  who  could  appeal  to  a  man  like 
Nelson.  The  fact  is,  she  may  have  been  one  of 
those  unamiable,  sexless  females  who  was  either 
coldly  ignoring  her  husband  or  storing  up  in  her 
heart  any  excuse  for  hurling  at  him  the  most 
bitter  invective  with  which  she  might  humiliate 
him.  She  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  vulgar 
shrieker,  but  she  may  have  been  a  silent  stabber, 
which  is  worse.  In  any  case,  Nelson  seems  to 
have  made  a  bad  choice,  as  by  his  actions  he  openly 
avowed  that  he  preferred  to  live  with  the  form- 
er mistress  of  Featherstonehaugh,  Greville,  and 
Hamilton,  rather  than  with  his  lawful  wife;  and 
he,  without  a  doubt,  was  the  best  judge  as  to 
which  of  them  suited  him  best.  The  truth  re- 
mains that  Emma  was  attractive  and  talented, 


74       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

and  although  lowly  born,  she  became  the  bosom 
companion  of  kings,  queens,  princesses,  princes, 
and  of  many  men  and  women  of  distinction. 

Nelson  must  have  been  extraordinarily  simple 
to  imagine  that  his  wife,  knowing,  as  all  the  world 
knew,  that  Lady  Hamilton  was  his  mistress  and 
a  bold,  unscrupulous  rival,  would  receive  her  with 
rapturous  friendliness.  The  amazing  puzzle  to 
most  people,  then  and  now,  is  why  she  received 
her  at  all,  unless  she  wished  to  worm  out  of  her 
the  precise  nature  of  the  intimacy.  That  may 
have  been  her  definite  purpose  in  allowing  the 
visits  for  two  or  three  months;  then  one  day  she 
flew  into  a  rage,  which  conjures  up  a  vision  of 
hooks  and  eyes  bursting  like  crackers  from  her 
person,  and  after  a  theatrical  display  of  temper  she 
disappears  like  a  whirling  tempest  from  the  pres- 
ence of  her  faithless  husband,  never  again  to  meet 
him.  This  manner  of  showing  resentment  to  the 
gallant  sailor's  fondness  for  the  wife  of  Sir  William 
Hamilton  was  the  last  straw.  There  was  nothing 
dignified  in  Lady  Nelson's  tornado  farewell  to 
her  husband;  rather,  if  the  records  may  be  relied 
on,  it  was  accompanied  by  a  flow  of  abuse  which 
could  emanate  only  from  an  enraged  termagant. 

Nelson  now  had  a  free  hand.  His  wife  was  to 
have  a  generous  allowance  on  condition  that  she 
left  him  alone  freely  to  bestow  his  affections  on 
the  seductive  Emma,  whose  story,  retold  by  Mr. 
Harrison,  shows  Lady  Nelson  to  have  been  an 
impossible  woman  to  live  with.     She  made  home 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  75 

hell  to  him,  so  he  said.  And  making  liberal  allow- 
ance for  Emma's  fibbing  propensities,  there  are 
positive  evidences  that  her  story  of  Nelson's  home 
life  was  crammed  with  pathetic  truths  of  domestic 
misery.  Nelson  corroborates  this  by  a  letter  to 
Emma  almost  immediately  after  his  wife's  ludi- 
crous exit.  The  letter  is  the  outpouring  of  an  em- 
bittered soul  that  had  been  freed  from  purgatory 
and  was  entering  into  a  new  joy.  It  is  a  sickening 
effusion  of  unrestrained  love-making  that  would  put 
any  personage  of  penny-novel  fame  to  the  blush. 
I  may  as  well  give  the  full  dose.     Here  it  is: 

Now,  my  own  dear  wife:  for  such  you  are  in  the  sight 
of  Heaven,  I  can  give  full  scope  to  my  feelings,  for  I  dare 
say  Oliver  will  faithfully  deliver  this  letter.  You  know, 
my  dearest  Emma,  that  there  is  nothing  in  this  world  that 
I  would  not  do  for  us  to  live  together  and  to  have  our  dear 
little  child  with  us.  I  firmly  believe  that  this  campaign 
will  give  us  peace,  and  then  we  will  set  off  for  Bronte.  In 
twelve  hours  we  shall  be  across  the  water,  and  freed  from 
all  the  nonsense  of  his  friends,  or  rather  pretended  ones. 
Nothing  but  an  event  happening  to  him  could  prevent 
my  going;  and  I  am  sure  you  will  think  so,  for,  unless  all 
matters  accord,  it  would  bring  a  hundred  of  tongues  and 
slanderous  reports  if  I  separated  from  her,  which  I  would 
do  with  pleasure  the  moment  we  can  be  united.  I  want  to 
see  her  no  more;  therefore  we  must  manage  till  we  can 
quit  this  country,  or  your  uncle  dies.  I  love  you:  I  never 
did  love  any  one  else.  I  never  had  a  dear  pledge  of  love 
till  you  gave  me  one;  and  you,  thank  my  God,  never  gave 
one  to  anybody  else.  I  think  before  March  is  out,  you 
will  either  see  us  back,  or  so  victorious  that  we  shall  ensure 
a  glorious  issue  to  our  toils.     Think  what  my  Emma  will 


76       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

feel  at  seeing  return  safe,  perhaps  with  a  little  more  fame, 
her  own  dear  Nelson.  Never,  if  I  can  help  it,  will  I  dine 
out  of  my  ship  or  go  on  shore,  except  duty  calls  me.  Let 
Sir  Hyde  have  any  glory  he  can  catch,  I  envy  him  not. 
You,  my  beloved  Emma,  and  my  country,  are  the  two 
dearest  objects  of  my  fond  heart.  A  heart  susceptible  and 
true.  Only  place  confidence  in  me,  and  you  shall  never 
be  disappointed.  I  burn  all  your  dear  letters,  because  it 
is  right  for  your  sake;  and  I  wish  you  would  burn  all  mine 
— they  can  do  no  good,  and  will  do  us  both  harm  if  any 
seizure  of  them;  or  the  dropping  of  even  one  of  them  would 
fill  the  mouths  of  the  world  sooner  than  we  intend.  My 
longing  for  you,  both  person  and  conversation,  you  may 
readily  imagine  (especially  the  person).  No,  my  heart, 
person,  and  mind  are  in  perfect  union  of  love  towards  my 
own  dear,  beloved  Emma,  the  real  bosom  friend  of  her, 
all  hers,  all  Emma's. 

Nelson  and  Bronte. 

The  Prince  of  Wales  had  dined  with  and  paid 
suspicious  attentions  to  Emma,  and  her  fond 
lover,  knowing  this,  advised  her  to  warn  him  off. 
He  probably  had  an  instinct  that  his  "beloved 
Emma,"  who  is  "the  dearest  object  of  his  fond 
heart,"  was  not  quite  strong  enough  to  resist 
temptation.  Especially  would  she  be  likely  to 
fall  under  the  fascinating  influence  of  this  little 
princely  scamp.  Nelson's  mind  turned  to  his 
wife,  and  he  emphasized  the  desire  that  he  might 
never  see  his  aversion  again.     Nor  did  he. 

Some  of  his  contemporaries  doubted  the  pater- 
nity of  Horatia;  Nelson  never  did,  and  it  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  more  beautiful  outpouring  of 
love  than  that  which  he  unfailingly  gave  to  his 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  77 

little  daughter.  Every  thought  of  his  soul  was 
divided  between  her  and  the  audacious  flirt  of  a 
mother  whom  Nelson,  always  lavish,  calls  "his 
love";  "his  darling  angel";  "his  heaven-given 
wife";  "the  dearest,  only  true  wife  of  his  own 
till  death."  The  "till  death"  finish  is  quite 
sailorly! 

No  one  will  doubt  his  amazing  faculty  for  love- 
making  and  love-writing,  and  it  must  always  be 
a  puzzle  how  he  managed  to  mix  it  so  successfully 
with  war.  His  guilty  love-making  was  an  occa- 
sional embarrassment  to  him,  and  though  he  was 
the  greatest  'naval  tactician  of  his  time,  his  domes- 
tic methods  were  hopelessly  clumsy  and  transpar- 
ent. For  instance,  in  pouring  out  his  grievances 
to  his  mistress  he  refers  to  himself  by  the  name 
of  Thompson,  and  to  Lady  Nelson  as  Aunt.  Here 
are  a  few  examples:  "Thompson  desires  me  to 
say  that  he  has  never  wrote  his  Aunt  since  he 
sailed."  "In  twelve  hours  we  shall  be  across  the 
water,  and  freed  from  all  the  nonsense  of  his 
friends,  or  rather,  pretended  ones."  "His"  means 
Hamilton,  and  "friends"  means  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  whom  he  looked  upon  as  a  rival  for  Emma's 
accommodating  affections.  Again,  he  says,  "If 
I  separated  from  her,  which  I  would  do  with 
pleasure  the  moment  we  can  be  united."  "Her" 
is  Lady  Nelson,  but  in  discussing  delicate  matters 
of  domestic  policy  he  thinks  it  desirable  to  conceal 
that  he  would  not  weep  were  he  to  hear  of  Sir 
William's  death,  or  be  broken  with  grief  to  separate 


78       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

entirely  from  Lady  Nelson,  so  that  he  might  be- 
come "united  to  his  heaven-given  wife,"  "our 
darling  angel,  Emma." 


The  Admiralty  did  a  great  injustice  to  the 
victor  of  the  Nile  by  appointing  Sir  Hyde  Parker 
commander-in-chief,  instead  of  one  who  was  known 
to  be  the  most  brilliant  officer  in  the  Navy.  It 
must  have  cut  deeply  into  Nelson's  proud  soul  to 
have  to  serve  under  a  man  who  had  not  a  particle 
of  initiative;  and,  but  for  the  splendid  bravery 
and  matchless  talents  of  his  second,  the  wooden 
walls  of  old  England  would  have  been  sent  to 
Davy  Jones  by  the  fort  of  Copenhagen  and  the 
Danish  fleet.  Sir  Hyde  did  not  relish  having 
Nelson  with  him  at  all.  He  sulked,  and  treated 
him  in  a  way  that  was  observed  and  resented  by 
those  who  served  under  him.  The  commander- 
in-chief  acted  like  a  jealous  maiden,  his  intention 
being  to  freeze  and  humiliate  the  man  who  was 
destined  to  win  the  victory  and  save  the  British 
fleet  from  entire  destruction.  There  always  has 
been  tremendous  jealousy  in  the  Navy.  But  Sir 
Hyde  Parker  should  have  known  that  he  was 
dealing  with  an  officer  (who  was  the  genius  of  the 
Navy)  who  would  stand  no  nonsense  from  any 
Lord  High  Admiral  or  other  fussy  dignitary  whom 
he  could  put  in  his  pocket  whenever  he  liked  to 
exercise   his   personality.     Nelson   never   shirked 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  79 

responsibility  when  his  country's  interests  were 
being  endangered  by  a  dignified  snob.  Discipline, 
so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  until  his  object  was 
gained,  was  pushed  aside,  and  the  great  spirit 
swept  into  the  vortex  of  the  danger  and  extin- 
guished all  opposition.  He  said  on  one  occasion, 
"I  hate  your  pen-and-ink  men.  A  fleet  of  British 
warships  are  the  best  negotiators  in  Europe.', 

I  have  said  that  Parker  was  in  the  "sulks," 
so  Nelson  adopted  a  humorous  plan  of  thawing 
the  ice  by  catching  a  turbot  on  the  Dogger  Bank 
on  the  passage  out  to  the  Baltic.  A  sly  seaman 
had  told  him  that  this  kind  of  fish  was  easily 
caught,  so  when  they  arrived  on  the  Bank  the 
fishing  commenced,  and  the  turbot  was  caught. 
Nelson  knew  his  commander-in-chief  was  never 
averse  to  eating,  so  he  gave  orders  to  have  it  sent 
to  Sir  Hyde,  and  although  the  sea  was  dangerous 
for  a  small  boat,  the  fish  was  in  due  course  pre- 
sented to  Parker,  who  sent  back  a  cordial  note 
of  thanks.  This  ingenious  stratagem  eased  the 
strained  relations  between  the  two  men,  but  there 
still  remained  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  command- 
er-in-chief that  the  electric  and  resourceful  spirit 
of  Nelson  would,  in  any  engagement,  be  the  domi- 
nating factor,  with  or  without  official  sanction. 
He  knew  how  irresistibly  Nelson's  influence  per- 
meated the  fleet,  for  no  man  knew  better  than  this 
much  envied  Vice-Admiral  how  to  enthuse  his 
comrades  (high  and  low)  in  battle,  and  also  what 
confidence  the  nation  as  a  whole  had  in  what  he 


80       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

called  the  "Nelson  touch."  Sir  Hyde  Parker, 
knowing  Nelson's  superb  qualities,  should  have 
paused  and  considered  the  consequences  before 
he  slyly  sought  to  put  such  a  man  in  the  shade. 
There  was  not  a  man  in  the  whole  squadron  who 
would  not  have  gone  to  his  doom  under  Nelson's 
lead  rather  than  live  under  any  other's.  Nelson 
inspired  men  with  the  same  love  of  glory  which 
he  craved  for  himself.  No  real  sailor  ever  did 
like  to  sail  under  a  hesitating,  nervous  commander. 
Parker,  at  the  battle  of  Copenhagen,  gives  one 
(from  all  accounts)  the  impression  of  unsureness, 
afraid  to  take  any  risk  lest  it  be  the  wrong  one. 
Nelson  was  always  sure,  and  never  hesitated  to 
put  into  practice  his  considered  views. 

Parker,  at  a  critical  moment  in  the  battle  of 
Copenhagen,  hoisted  No.  39,  which  meant  "Leave 
off  action."  Nelson  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and 
said,  "No,  I'm  damned  if  I  do,"  and  kept  his  own 
"Engage  the  enemy  more  closely"  flying.  He 
then  added  to  Captain  Foley,  "I  have  only  one 
eye,  and  have  a  right  to  be  blind  sometimes." 
He  then  put  the  telescope  to  his  blind  eye,  and 
said,  "I  really  do  not  see  the  signal."  Unfor- 
tunately, some  of  the  ships  retired,  and  one  able 
fellow,  Captain  Riou,  who  knew  it  was  a  wrong 
move,  was  so  distressed  that  he  called  out  in  de- 
spair to  one  of  his  officers  beside  him,  "What  will 
Nelson  think  of  us?"  The  poor  captain  was  sub- 
sequently killed.  There  can  be  no  doubt  now 
that  the  signal  39  was  not  permissive  or  optional, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  81 

nor  that  Nelson,  having  the  enemy  by  the  throat, 
refused  to  let  go  until  he  had  strangled  him,  nor 
that  he  did  dramatically  act  the  blind-eye  trick. 
He  deliberately  disobeyed  orders,  and  saved  Eng- 
land's honour  and  fleet  by  doing  so.  It  was  one 
of  his  splendid  performances,  and  the  story  of  it 
will  live  on  into  distant  ages. 

Who  can  calculate  the  loss  of  national  prestige 
or  the  lives  that  have  been  thrown  away  by  put- 
ting severely  decorous  senior  officers  over  the 
heads  of  men  who  knew  their  business  better  and 
had  the  courage  and  capacity  to  carry  through 
big  naval  or  military  tasks?  And  how  tempting 
it  must  be  to  many  a  gallant  fellow  to  take  the 
business  into  his  own  hands!  Nelson  knew  well 
enough  that  he  had  laid  himself  open  to  the  full 
penalty  of  naval  law,  but  he  knew  also  that  if 
any  of  the  moth-eaten  crew  at  Whitehall  even 
hinted  it  there  would  be  "wigs  on  the  green." 
No  man  knew  the  pulse  of  the  nation  better,  and 
no  commander  played  up  to  it  less.  One  can 
imagine  hearing  him  say  to  some  of  his  officers 
(perhaps  Captain  Hardy  of  Trafalgar  fame),  after 
he  had  wrecked  the  Danish  fleet  and  battered  the 
forts  into  a  dilapidated  condition,  "Well,  I  have 
fought  contrary  to  orders,  and  they  will  perhaps 
hang  me;  never  mind,  let  them."  A  significant 
"let  them"  this,  which  means  more  than  he  cares 
to  express.  The  Danes  frankly  admitted  that 
they  had  been  beaten,  and  that  even  their  defence 
was  destroyed,  as  the  Crown  batteries  could  not 


82        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

be  held.  Instead  of  any  talk  of  "hanging"  him 
because  of  his  "disobedience,"  he  was  made  a 
Viscount  and  his  Rear-Admiral  (Graves)  a  Knight 
ot  the  Bath.  These  were  the  only  two  significant 
honours  conferred.  When  he  landed  at  Copen- 
hagen, it  is  said  that  the  people  viewed  him  with 
a  mixture  of  admiration  and  hostility.  He  thought 
they  were  extremely  amiable.  They  cheered  and 
shouted  "God  bless  Lord  Nelson!"  There  can  be 
no  reason  for  their  doing  this,  except  gratitude  to 
him  for  not  blowing  the  city  down  about  their  ears. 
Whatever  the  cause,  it  is  quite  certain  that  the 
Crown  Prince  and  some  of  the  Danish  statesmen 
treated  him  with  studied  cordiality.  Sir  Hyde 
Parker  was  a  drag,  and  indeed  an  intolerable 
nuisance  to  him.  When  the  armistice  was  sealed 
and  settled  for  fourteen  weeks,  he  wished  to  get 
off  to  Reval  and  hammer  the  Russian  squadron 
there,  but  the  commander-in-chief  shirked  all  re- 
sponsibility, and  his  victim  was  made  to  say  in 
a  letter  to  Lord  St.  Vincent  "that  he  would  have 
been  in  Reval  fourteen  days  before,  and  that  no 
one  could  tell  what  he  had  suffered,"  and  asks  my 
dear  Lord  "if  he  has  deserved  well,  to  let  him 
retire,  and  if  ill,  for  heaven's  sake  to  supersede 
him,  for  he  cannot  exist  in  this  state."  Lord 
Nelson  conducted  the  British  case  with  the  Danes 
with  consummate  statesmanship,  but  notwith- 
standing this,  the  fine  sensitive  nature  of  the  noble 
fellow  could  not  fail  to  be  hurt  when  His  Majesty 
(the  same  who  lost  us  America)  stated  that,  "  un- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  83 

der  all  the  circumstances,  he  had  thought  well  to 
approve."  Nelson  replied  that  he  was  sorry  the 
armistice  was  only  approved  under  all  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  then  gives  His  Majesty  a  slap 
in  the  eye  by  informing  him  that  every  part  of 
the  all  was  to  the  advantage  of  the  King  and 
country.  St.  Vincent,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty, subsequently  made  amends  for  His 
Majesty's  error  by  writing  to  say  that  his  "whole 
conduct  was  approved  and  admired,  and  that  he 
does  not  care  to  draw  comparisons,  but  that 
everybody  agrees  there  is  only  one  Nelson. "  This 
strong  and  valiant  sailor  was  never  at  any  time 
unconscious  of  his  power.  What  troubled  him 
was  other  people's  lack  of  appreciation  of  it,  though 
he  accepted  with  a  whimsical  humour  the  grudg- 
ing spirit  in  which  credit  was  given  to  his  unerring 
judgment  and  unequalled  bravery.  Nor  can  we 
examine  the  great  deeds  of  his  career  without 
feeling  a  thrill  of  pride  in  the  knowledge  that  he 
belonged  to  us. 

The  spirit  which  animated  Nelson  was  the  same 
as  that  which  lived  in  those  heroes  of  old  who  were 
used  by  Providence  as  instruments  in  their  coun- 
try's destiny,  and  we  may  believe  that  this  same 
spirit  will  live  in  those  God-sent  men  of  the  future 
who  will  be  necessary  for  the  carrying  out  of  some 
special  task  or  for  the  destruction  of  evil.  Ap- 
parently, long  intervals  elapse  between  the  ap- 
pearance of  men  such  as  Napoleon  or  Nelson. 
Napoleon's  name  still  stirs  the  blood,  and  now, 


84       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

more  than  a  century  after  his  death,  any  one  of 
the  Powers  who  had  a  share  in  his  tragic  end  would 
give  worlds  to  get  back  some  of  his  force  and 
genius.  Nelson  in  a  much  less  degree  and  in  a 
different  way  was  another  of  those  sent  by  Pro- 
vidence to  take  part  in  his  country's  struggles, 
and,  like  many  another  great  man,  was  subjected 
to  cruel  indignities  at  the  hands  of  his  inferiors. 
He  often  complained  about  his  treatment,  but 
this  never  prevented  him  from  doing  his  work. 
But  as  his  instructions  were  not  always  in  accord- 
ance with  his  view  of  success,  he  occasionally 
disobeyed  them  for  the  country's  good.  It  might 
be  a  gain  to  borrow  his  spirit  for  a  while  at  the 
present  time  to  electrify  the  British  Admiralty. 
Nelson  was  more  successful  in  his  conflicts  with 
the  enemy  than  with  the  chiefs  of  his  calling  afloat 
and  ashore.  He  was  not  really  strong  and  auda- 
cious enough  in  his  dealings  with  them.  "Jacky 
Fisher"  (as  he  is  fondly  called),  who  lives  in  our 
disturbed  time,  would  have  had  similar  sandbags 
jettisoned  in  quick  time.  The  modern  Nelson 
has  had  his  troubles  with  inferior  superiors  too, 
but  he  flattened  out  some  of  them.  The  modern 
man  is  all  business,  and  does  not  show  vanity  if 
he  has  any.  The  "Only  Nelson"  was  strong, 
weak,  and  vain.  If  no  one  else  gratuitously 
sounded  his  praises,  he  would  do  so  himself  in 
the  most  comical  way,  not  altogether  in  public, 
but  to  "Santa  Emma/*  whose  function  it  was  to 
spread  them  abroad. . 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  85 

After  the  battle  of  Copenhagen,  Sir  Hyde  Par- 
ker sailed  for  Carlscrona,  and  left  Nelson  to  hoist 
his  flag  as  commander-in-chief  on  the  St.  George, 
which  was  not  ready,  and  was  possibly  being 
refitted  after  rough  handling.  He  tells  Emma  of 
Parker's  departure,  and  adds,  "If  there  is  any 
work  to  do,"  i.  e.,  any  fighting,  "he  is  pretty  cer- 
tain they  will  wait  for  him"  before  commencing 
it.  And  then  he  adds,  "Nelson  will  be  first.  Who 
can  stop  him?"  On  the  eve  of  the  battle  of 
Copenhagen  he  wrote  to  her,  "Before  you  receive 
this,  all  will  be  over  with  Denmark.  Either  your 
Nelson  will  be  safe,  and  Sir  Hyde  Parker  victor, 
or  your  own  Nelson  will  be  laid  low."  What  deep 
and  genuine  love-lunacy  to  be  found  in  a  terrific 
warrior,  whose  very  name  terrified  those  who  had 
the  honour  to  fight  against  him !  The  incongruity 
of  it  baffles  one's  belief,  and  seems  to  reverse  the 
very  order  of  human  construction.  In  matters 
concerning  his  profession  and  highly  technical 
State  affairs  there  was  no  more  astute  man,  but 
as  soon  as  his  thoughts  centre  on  this  female  night- 
mare, he  loses  control  of  his  wonderful  gifts,  and 
his  mind  becomes  deranged  with  the  idea  of  her 
being  an  object  on  which  he  should  bestow  rever- 
ence and  infinite  adulation.  If  ever  there  was  a 
creature  of  lamentable  contradictions,  surely  it 
was  this  genius,  who  immortalized  our  national 
glory  at  the  Nile,  Copenhagen,  and  Trafalgar! 
That  a  man  of  his  calibre,  surrounded  with  eternal 
fame,   should  be  inflamed  with  a  passion  for  a 


86       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

woman  of  negative  morals  who  was  refused  admit- 
tance to  the  same  circle  that,  but  for  this  attach- 
ment, would  receive  him  as  their  triumphant  hero, 
is  an  example  of  human  eccentricity  that  never 
has  and  never  can  be  accounted  for.  It  may  be 
taken  for  granted  that  at  the  very  time  he  was 
writing  to  her  about  "her  own  Nelson"  she  would 
be  carrying  on  a  love  intrigue  with  some  old  or 
new  acquaintance,  possibly  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
whom,  as  I  have  said,  her  gallant  lover  wished  her 
to  avoid.  He  was  known  to  be  a  cheat,  a  liar, 
and  a  faithless  friend  to  men  and  to  women,  while, 
in  accordance  with  the  splendid  ethic  of  this  type 
of  person,  he  believed  himself  to  be  possessed  of 
every  saintly  virtue.  But  any  one  who  is  curious 
to  have  a  fascinating  description  of  the  "little 
dapper"  should  consult  Thackeray. 

Well,  there  was  no  fighting  to  be  done  when 
the  fleet  under  Nelson  arrived  at  Reval,  and  the 
Emperor  Paul's  death  and  the  dilatoriness  of 
Parker  saved  the  Russian  fleet  from  extermina- 
tion. They  had  sailed  into  safer  anchorage  and 
the  British  Admiral  had  to  content  himself  by 
paying  an  official  visit  to  the  authorities  at  Reval, 
and  receiving  another  ovation  from  the  populace, 
which  appealed  to  his  whimsical  love  of  approba- 
tion. As  is  his  custom,  he  sends  Emma  an  account 
of  his  Reval  experiences.  He  says  he  would  not 
mention  so  personal  an  incident  to  any  one  else, 
as  it  would  appear  so  uncommonly  like  vanity, 
but  between  her  and  himself,  hundreds  had  come 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  87 

to  have  a  look  at  Nelson,  and  he  heard  them  say, 
"That  is  him!  That  is  him!"  It  touches  his 
vanity  so  keenly  that  he  follows  on  by  intimating 
that  he  "feels  a  good  name  is  better  than  riches, 
and  that  it  has  a  fine  feeling  to  an  honest  heart." 
''All  the  Russians,"  says  he,  "are  of  opinion  that 
I  am  like  Suwaroff,  le  Jeune  Suwaroff."  As  may 
be  imagined,  Nelson  was  bitterly  disappointed  at 
so  sudden  a  collapse  of  his  hopes,  but,  always 
master  of  the  situation,  he  wrote  a  most  courteous 
letter  to  Count  Pahlen,  the  Russian  Minister, 
who  had  complained  that  his  presence  was  cal- 
culated to  make  a  breach  of  the  good  feeling  be- 
tween the  two  countries.  The  Admiral's  reply 
was  tactful  and  unconsciously  humorous.  The 
tone  was  that  of  a  person  who  had  never  been  so 
unjustly  hurt  in  his  life.  "He  had  come  to  pay 
his  respects  to  His  Imperial  Majesty,  and  as  his 
motives  had  been  so  entirely  misunderstood,  he 
would  put  to  sea  at  once." 


VI 


His  health  was  beginning  to  feel  the  enormous 
strain  that  had  been  imposed  upon  him  for  many 
months.  This,  together  with  his  longing  to  be 
in  the  congenial  society  of  Lady  Hamilton,  caused 
him  to  ask  to  be  relieved  of  his  command,  and  he 
was  delighted  to  receive  a  letter  from  his  old  chief, 
Lord  St.  Vincent,  stating  that  it  was  almost  an 


88        Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

impossible  task  to  find  a  suitable  successor,  as  in 
all  his  experience  he  never  knew  any  one,  except 
Troubridge,  who  had  the  art  of  enthusing  others 
with  his  own  unequalled  spirit  as  he  had.  The 
command  was  handed  over  to  Sir  Charles  Pole, 
and  Nelson,  almost  wild  with  joy,  sailed  from  the 
Baltic  in  the  brig  Kite  on  the  19th  June,  and  ar- 
rived at  Yarmouth  on  the  1st  July,  1801.  Nelson 
always  claimed  that  if  the  command  had  been 
given  to  him  in  February  many  lives  would  have 
been  saved,  and  our  prestige  would  not  have 
suffered. 

We  cannot  describe  all  the  fascinating  pleasure 
we  get  when  we  read  and  think  of  the  wonders 
this  strange  mortal  performed  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  his  profession;  when,  however,  he  de- 
parts from  that  and  begins  to  make  stagey  love 
to  Lady  Hamilton,  it  tries  one's  Christian  patience. 
What  business  had  he,  as  the  first  sailor  in  the 
world,  to  enter  into  such  a  compact  with  another 
man's  wife?  However,  he  must  not  be  judged 
by  this  liaison  alone,  but  by  the  circumstances 
that  led  to  it. 

We  know  that  his  domestic  life  had  been  made 
irritating  and  unbearable  to  his  sensitive  and 
highly  strung  nature,  but  he  found  in  Emma 
Hamilton  one  who  played  upon  his  vanity,  and 
made  him  feel  that  he  was  regarded  as  an  idol 
as  well  as  an  idolatrous  lover.  He  thirsted  for 
reverence  and  the  love  of  soul  for  soul,  and  she, 
in  her  own  way,  gave  both  with  lavish  profusion, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  89 

whereas  his  wife's  austere  indifference  to  his  amaz- 
ing accomplishments  fell  upon  his  large  heart  like 
ice,  and  who  can  estimate  his  sufferings  before 
he  decided  to  defy  society?  He  believed  and 
hoped  that  he  would  be  exonerated,  and  became 
in  the  sight  of  Heaven  (as  he  avowed)  the  husband 
of  a  woman  who,  there  can  be  little  doubt,  did 
not  keep  her  honour  unstained,  but  who,  to  him, 
was  the  guiding  spirit  of  his  remaining  days:  and 
whatever  impressions  we  may  have  forced  upon 
us  of  the  liaisons  of  this  noxious  creature,  there  is 
nothing  on  record  that  suggests  that  he  was  ever 
unfaithful  to  her  after  the  bond  of  union  was 
made.  Nor  does  he  appear  to  have  been  openly 
charged  with  illicit  intimacy  with  other  women 
after  his  marriage  to  Mrs.  Nisbet,  other  than 
with  Lady  Hamilton. 

We  may  talk  of  his  wonderful  career  being 
morally  blunted,  but  his  own  belief  in  the  sanctity 
of  the  verbal  arrangement  was  sound  to  the  core, 
and  he  hazarded  the  opprobrium  of  our  stern 
conventional  system.  To  him,  Lady  Hamilton 
had  an  enduring  charm  which  influenced  his  wild, 
weak,  generous  soul,  and  was  in  fact  an  inspira- 
tion to  him.  It  is  a  truism  that  the  life-story  of 
all  men  has  its  tragedy  and  romance,  and  in  this, 
Nelson's  was  only  similar  to  others;  and  who  can 
help  loving  his  memory? 

The  Hamiltons  lived  with  him  at  Merton  when 
he  was  on  leave.  They  shared  the  cost  of  the 
home,  which  Lady  Hamilton  had,  with  elaborate, 


9°       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

artistic  taste,  prepared  for  him.  A  document 
written  by  Sir  William  makes  it  clear  that  the 
relations  of  man  and  wife  were  strained  at  times 
to  breaking-point,  for,  as  he  states,  "I  am  old 
and  she  in  the  beauty  and  vigour  of  youth"; 
and  then  he  proceeds:  "I  have  no  complaint  to 
make,  but  I  feel  that  the  whole  attention  of  my 
wife  is  given  to  Lord  Nelson  and  his  interest  at 
Merton."  Obviously,  this  is  the  old  gentleman's 
dull  way  of  expressing  his  idea  that  there  was  a 
gamble  going  on  with  the  marriage  vow,  and  then, 
with  delightful  simplicity,  he  nullifies  his  suspi- 
cious thoughts  by  stating  that  he  well  knows  the 
purity  of  Lord  Nelson's  friendship  for  Emma  and 
himself  and  that  he  knows  how  uncomfortable  it 
would  make  his  Lordship,  "our  best  friend,,,  if  a 
separation  should  take  place;  therefore  he  was 
determined  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  prevent  such 
an  extremity,  which  would  be  essentially  detri- 
mental to  all  parties,  but  would  be  more  sensibly 
felt  by  "our  dear  friend  than  by  us."1  He  is  will- 
ing to  go  on  provided  the  expenses  do  not  go  on 
increasing,  but  as  he  cannot  expect  to  live  many 
years,  every  moment  is  precious  to  him,  and  hopes 
that  he  may  be  allowed  to  be  his  own  master 
and  pass  his  time  in  his  own  way.1  He  continues: 
"I  am  fully  determined  not  to  have  any  more 
silly  altercations  that  too  often  arise  between  us, 
and  embitter  his  present  moments  exceedingly. 
If  we  cannot  live  comfortably  togehter,"  he  con- 

1  Italics  are  the  author's. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  91 

tinues,  "a  wise  and  well-concerted  separation 
would  be  preferable."  He  says  he  knows  and 
admires  her  talents  and  many  excellent  qualities, 
but  he  is  not  blind  to  her  defects, x  and  confesses  to 
having  many  himself,  and  pleads  "for  God's  sake 
to  bear  and  forbear." 

Throughout  this  pathetic  document  we  find 
evidences  that  his  heart  was  torn  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  mean  advantage  being  taken  of 
his  friendship.  There  is  a  droll,  vacillating  belief 
in  the  virtue  of  his  wife  and  the  purity  of  Nelson's 
motives,  but  every  sentence  indicates  that  his 
instinct  led  him  to  believe  that  another  had  taken 
his  place.  It  may  have  been  that  he  saw  it  dimly, 
and  that  he  shrank  from  making  any  direct  accu- 
sation, not  wishing  to  break  with  the  man  with 
whom  he  had  long  been  on  close  terms  of  friend- 
ship. It  is  highly  improbable  that  either  his  own 
or  Emma's  past  history  escaped  his  memory 
when  he  was  penning  his  grievances.  Indeed, 
there  are  evidences  gleaming  through  his  memo- 
randum that  his  reflections  were  harassed  by  the 
remembrance  of  his  own  conduct,  which  had 
plunged  to  epic  depths  of  wrongdoing  in  other 
days.  These  and  other  considerations  would 
doubtless  have  a  restraining  effect  on  the  action 
that  might  have  been  taken  under  different  cir- 
cumstances. Sir  William  Hamilton  must  have 
pondered  over  the  parentage  of  Horatia,  who  was 
born  on  the  29th  January,  1801.     Is  it  possible 

1  Italics  are  the  author's. 


92       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

that  he  knew  that  Nelson  was  her  father,  and 
believed  in  the  purity  of  his  friendship  for  Emma 
and  himself?  I  think  everything  goes  to  prove 
that  he  knew  of  his  friend's  relations  with  his  wife 
and  condoned  it.  Nelson,  in  his  clumsy,  trans- 
parent way,  tried  to  conceal  the  origin  of  the  child, 
so  he  proceeds  to  write  a  letter  to  Lady  Hamilton, 
which  I  shall  quote  later  on.  To  say  that  Sir 
William  Hamilton,  a  man  of  the  world  with  vast 
experience  of  human  deceptions  and  intrigues, 
could  have  been  put  off  the  scent,  in  view  of  all 
the  circumstances,  is  too  great  a  tax  on  credulity, 
but  it  is  wholly  characteristic  of  Nelson's  ideas  of 
mystification.  But  even  if  there  were  any  further 
proof  needed,  Lady  Hamilton  has  settled  the  mat- 
ter by  preserving  the  correspondence  Nelson  urged 
her  to  destroy.     This  will  be  referred  to  later  on. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  hardly  thinkable  that  Nelson, 
who  had  such  a  high  sense  of  honour  in  other 
affairs  of  life,  and  who  had  accepted  the  hospitality 
and  been  the  honoured  guest  of  Sir  William 
Hamilton  at  Naples,  should  have  made  the  occa- 
sion an  opportunity  of  establishing  illicit  relations 
with  his  wife.  The  whole  matter  must  ever  re- 
main a  blot  on  the  great  Admiral's  fame,  even 
though  his  host  appeared  to,  or  really  did,  con- 
nive at  it.  The  price  was  too  high  to  pay  for 
both  of  them. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  from  Lord 
Minto  to  his  wife  indicates  the  mode  of  life  of  the 
family  party.     He  says: 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  93 

I  went  to  Lord  Nelson's  (Merton)  on  Saturday.  The 
whole  establishment  and  way  of  life  makes  me  angry  as 
well  as  melancholy.  I  do  not  think  myself  obliged  to 
quarrel  with  him  for  his  weakness,  though  nothing  shall 
ever  induce  me  to  give  the  smallest  countenance  to  Lady 
Hamilton.  She  looks  ultimately  to  the  chance  of  marriage, 
as  Sir  William  will  not  be  long  in  her  way,  and  she  probably 
indulges  a  hope  that  she  may  survive  Lady  Nelson.  She 
is  in  high  looks,  but  more  immense  than  ever.  She  goes 
on  cramming  Nelson  with  trowels  of  flattery,  which  he 
takes  as  quietly  as  a  child  does  pap.  The  love  she  makes 
to  him  is  ridiculous  and  disgusting.  The  whole  house, 
staircase  and  all,  is  covered  with  pictures  of  her  and  him 
of  all  sorts  and  sizes.  He  is  represented  in  naval  actions, 
coats  of  arms,  pieces  of  plate  in  his  honour,  the  flagstaff 
of  UOrient.  If  it  were  Lady  Hamilton's  house,  there 
might  be  pretence  for  it;  but  to  make  his  own  a  mere 
looking-glass  to  view  himself  all  day  is  bad  taste. 

This  letter  was  written  on  the  22d  March,  1802, 
and  Nelson  writes  that  Sir  William  Hamilton  died 
in  his  arms  and  in  Lady  Hamilton's  on  the  6th 
April,  1803,  passing  on  "without  a  struggle,  and 
that  the  world  had  never  lost  a  more  upright  and 
accomplished  gentleman";1  which,  be  it  said,  is 
rather  a  stagey  performance  of  his  wife's  lover. 
But  the  mistress  excels  her  lover  in  the  record 
of  the  death-bed  drama.     "Unhappy  day,"  says 

1  Some  authorities  speak  of  Sir  William  Hamilton  as  being  an  ami- 
able, accomplished  man,  who  left  on  record  a  letter  which  reads  as 
follows:  "My  study  of  antiquities  has  kept  me  in  constant  thought 
of  the  perpetual  fluctuation  of  everything.  The  whole  art  is  really 
to  live  all  the  days  of  our  life.  Admire  the  Creator  and  all  His  works, 
to  us  incomprehensible,  and  do  all  the  good  you  can  on  earth;  and  take 
the  chance  of  eternity  without  dismay." 


94       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

she  in  profusion  of  tears,  "for  the  forlorn  Emma. 
Ten  minutes  past  ten  dear  beloved  Sir  William  left 
me."  Emma  was  poorly  provided  for;  only  £700 
a  year  jointure  and  £100  a  year  for  her  mother 
for  life.  She  and  Nelson  appealed  to  Lord  Minto 
to  urge  on  Mr.  Addington  her  claim  for  a  pension, 
and  she  vowed  to  Minto  that  her  connection  with 
Nelson  was  pure,  and  he  says  he  can  believe  it, 
which  is  hardly  consistent  with  the  description 
he  gives  his  wife  as  to  "their  open  and  disgusting 
proceedings,"  or  with  his  comments  on  a  visit  paid 
to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  at  Blenheim,  where 
the  Duke  had  treated  the  gallant  naval  chief  and 
his  party  as  though  they  were  mere  ordinary 
trippers  who  had  come  to  see  the  wonders  of  his 
possessions.  He  condescendingly  ordered  refresh- 
ments to  be  given  to  them,  which  sent  Nelson 
into  a  fury  of  indignation,  and  Minto  excuses  the 
Duke  by  stating  that  Nelson  persuaded  himself 
that  all  the  world  should  be  blind  because  he 
chose  to  extol  Emma's  "virtues."  Obviously, 
Minto  was  not  firmly  convinced  of  her  chastity. 

Nelson,  with  his  heart  full  of  blind  adoration, 
had  quite  a  simple,  sailorly  conviction  that  no 
one  ought  to  question  the  innocence  of  his  attach- 
ment to  Emma,  since  he  called  Hamilton  her 
"Uncle";  and,  because  he  wished  the  public  to 
believe  in  his  innocence,  he  took  it  for  granted 
that  they  would  believe  it.  The  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough evidently  had  heard  and  believed  in  the 
impure  tale,  but  that  did  not  justify  him  in  treat- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  95 

ing  his  noble  guest  and  his  friends  in  the  snobbish 
and  ill-mannered  way  he  did.  It  is  hardly  likely 
that  Nelson  would  have  paid  the  visit  without 
being  asked,  and  in  ordinary  decency  he  should 
have  been  received  or  not  asked  at  all.  He  was  a 
greater  figure  and  public  servant  than  the  Duke, 
and  His  Grace  would  not  have  suffered  in  dignity 
had  he  met  Nelson  on  terms  of  equality.  He 
could  not  have  done  less,  at  all  events.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  great  Admiral  showed  a  peevish- 
ness at  the  treatment  which  was  unworthy  of 
his  fame  and  position;  he  could  well  afford  to 
ignore  the  affront,  more  especially  as  he  prided 
himself  that  the  lady  the  Duke  took  exception  to 
was  "in  the  sight  of  Heaven  his  wife,"  and  no 
one  had  any  right  to  question  his  choice. 

The  views  held  by  Hamilton  and  recorded  in 
various  conflicting  versions  give  the  impression 
that  he  was  puzzled,  and  could  not  determine 
whether  to  believe  in  the  fidelity  of  Nelson  or  not. 
Some  writers  think  that  he  winked  at  the  liaison 
because  of  the  difference  between  his  own  age  and 
that  of  his  wife;  others,  that  he  thought  the  rela- 
tions were  innocent,  and  a  token  of  high-spirited 
friendship  for  himself;  but  all  delicately  indicate 
their  conviction  that  he  knew  what  was  going  on. 
Meanwhilfi,  Nelson  steadfastly  avows  his  unyield- 
ing fidelity  to  his  friends,  and,  with  this  exception, 
I  think  we  may  conclude  that  his  devotion  to  them 
could  always  be  relied  upon;  indeed,  his  attach- 
ment to  Hamilton  was  of  an  affectionate  character, 


96       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

even  when  many  people  believed  he  was  betraying 
him.  Whether  Sir  William  knew  and  believed 
that  the  association  between  his  wife  and  Nelson 
was  pure  or  not, x  he  evidently  desired  that  no  one 
else  should  believe  it,  for  in  a  codicil  to  his  will 
he  bequeaths  "The  copy  of  Madame  Le  Brun's 
picture  of  his  wife  in  enamel,  and  gives  to  his 
dearest  friend,  Lord  Nelson,  a  very  small  token 
of  the  great  regard  he  has  for  his  Lordship,  the 
most  virtuous,  loyal,  and  truly  brave  character 
I  ever  met  with."  Then  he  finishes  up  with  God's 
blessing  to  him  and  shame  to  those  who  do  not 
say  "Amen."  This  is  a  wonderful  testimony  of 
friendship  from  a  man  who  had  been  wronged, 
and  might  well  have  shaken  the  belief  of  those 
who  founded  their  opinions  on  the  startling  impro- 
prieties they  had  beheld  between  the  man  whom 
he  designated  "the  most  virtuous,  loyal,  and  truly 
brave  character  he  had  ever  met  with"  and  his 
wife.  That  Sir  William  connived  at  what  looked 
uncommonly  like  infidelity  may  or  may  not  be 
doubtful,  but  that  he  saw  more  than  would  have 
impressed  an  ordinary  man  or  woman  with  suspi- 
cion is  unquestionable,  and  the  best  that  can  be 
said  for  his  attitude  is  that  he  was  so  mentally 
constituted  that  he  could  only  see  or  preferred  to 
see  in  Nelson's  extravagant  attentions  to  his  wife 

1  Sir  Harris  Nicolas  is  inclined  to  believe  in  the  purity  of  Nelson's 
attachment  and  Southey  says  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  was 
more  than  platonic.  But  these  views  are  certainly  not  borne  out 
by  those  who  knew  Nelson  and  his  connection  with  the  Hamiltons 
intimately. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  97 

a  guileless  symbol  of  high  friendship  for  her,  which 
he  took  as  a  compliment  to  himself.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  he  not  only  suspected  but  knew  that  he 
was  being  betrayed,  and  bitterly  resented  the 
passion  which  no  remonstrances  from  him  could 
have  controlled,  he  at  any  rate  determined  to  let 
the  world  see  "how  a  Christian  could  die,"  and 
refrained  from  uttering  the  unutterable.  Napo- 
leon on  the  rock  at  St.  Helena  acted  in  the  same 
magnanimous  way  towards  the  adulterous  Marie 
Louise,  of  whose  faithlessness  he  also  unguardedly 
let  slip  his  opinion. 

It  is  an  odious  habit,  but  we  are  apt  to  believe, 
without  any  reserve,  disparaging  stories,  that  may 
or  may  not  be  true,  concerning  men  of  distinction, 
and  the  more  prominent  the  man  or  woman,  the 
more  viciously  the  scandalmongers  pursue  their 
contemptible  occupation.  These  vermin  invari- 
ably belong  to  a  class  of  industrious  mediocrities 
who  have  been  born  with  a  mental  kink,  and  their 
treachery,  falsehood,  and  cowardice  are  incurable. 
They  are  merely  hurtful  creatures  who  spoil  the 
earth,  and  are  to  be  found  dolefully  chattering 
about  what  they  conceive  to  be  other  men's  and 
women's  lapses  from  the  paths  of  stern  virtue. 
Their  plan  of  life  is  to  defame  other  people,  and 
by  this  means  proclaim  their  own  superiority  over 
other  weak  mortals.  Give  the  unsexed  woman 
a  chance,  and  she  will  let  fly  with  unrestrained 
industry.  How  many  innocent  people  have  had 
their  names  dragged  into  the  public  gaze  by  this 


98       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

vice!  The  report  may  arise  from  professional 
or  political  jealousy,  and  may  grow  into  incredible 
accusations  of  immorality.  Who  can  estimate 
the  suffering  caused  to  Lord  Melbourne,  the  then 
Prime  Minister,  and  to  his  relatives  and  friends, 
and  even  to  some  of  his  political  opponents,  and 
to  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Norton,  one  of  Sheridan's  beau- 
tiful daughters  (who  was  the  wife  of  as  unscrupu- 
lous a  scamp  as  was  ever  permitted  to  live),  by 
the  engineering  of  an  accusation  of  infidelity  that 
forced  the  Prime  Minister  and  Mrs.  Norton  into 
the  courts  to  defend  themselves  against  what  was 
proved  to  be  a  malicious  and  unfounded  story? 
The  plaintiff's  case,  resting  as  it  did  upon  a  tissue 
of  fabricated  evidence,  takes  a  fine  place  in  history 
because  of  the  judge's  impartiality  and  sagacious 
charge,  and  the  verdict  of  the  jury  for  the  defend- 
ants which  was  received  with  tumultuous  cheers, 
characterized  by  the  judge  as  "disgraceful  in  a 
court  of  justice."  His  Lordship's  remonstrance 
was  futile,  and  again  and  again  the  cheers  were 
given,  both  in  the  court  and  outside,  where  the 
wildest  enthusiasm  prevailed.  No  one  who  took 
part  in  this  disgraceful  action  came  out  of  it  with 
a  higher  reputation  than  Sir  John  Campbell,  who 
acted  for  Melbourne.  His  entrance  to  the  House 
of  Commons  that  night  was  the  occasion  of  an 
outburst  of  delirious  cheering,  the  like  of  which 
had  never  been  witnessed  in  the  House.  "The 
Tories"  are  said  to  have  "affected  to  cheer."  I 
give  this  as  a  notable  case  whereby  two  innocent 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  99 

people  were  threatened  with  ruin  and  disgrace  by 
the  poisonous  slander  circulated  for  both  private 
and  political  ends  and  fostered  by  the  worthless 
husband  of  a  virtuous  and  amiable  woman. 

It  is  common  knowledge  that  Nelson  and  Sir 
William  Hamilton  were  assailed  by  the  same  sting- 
ing wasps  as  Melbourne  and  Mrs.  Norton  (if  it 
be  proper  to  make  a  comparison),  but  they  were 
different  types  of  men  living  in  a  different  atmos- 
phere and  under  different  circumstances.  It  is 
true  that  Nelson  had  scruples  about  the  unwisdom 
of  his  unconventional  connection  with  Lady  Hamil- 
ton, and,  big-hearted  fellow  that  he  was,  he  would 
have  struggled  hard  to  avoid  giving  pain  to  his 
relations  and  friends;  and  who  knows  that  he 
did  not?  For  though  his  actions  may  belie  that 
impression,  his  whole  attitude  was  reckless,  silly, 
and  whimsical.  To  whatever  extent  he  may  have 
had  scruples,  he  certainly  did  not  possess  the 
faculty  of  holding  his  inclinations  in  check.  In- 
deed, he  made  no  secret  of  the  idea  that  "every 
man  became  a  bachelor  after  passing  the  Rock  of 
Gibraltar,"  and  in  this  notion  he  carried  out  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  old-time  sailor. 

He  disliked  marriage  and  loved  glory,  and,  being 
a  popular  hero,  he  was  forgiven  all  his  amorous 
sins,  which  were  by  many  looked  upon  as  being 
part  of  his  heroism.  His  laughable  efforts  to 
obscure  the  facts  might  have  satisfied  those  who 
wished  to  rely  on  Hamilton's  benedictory  absolu- 
tion, had  not  Nelson  and  Emma,  as  I  have  already 


ioo     Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

said,  left  behind  them  incriminating  letters  and 
documents  which  leave  no  doubt  as  to  what  they 
were  to  each  other.  The  great  Admiral  industri- 
ously destroyed  much  of  the  massive  correspond- 
ence, but  had  overlooked  some  of  the  hidden 
treasures.  Lady  Hamilton  promised  to  destroy 
all  hers,  but  failed  to  do  so.  Hence  the  docu- 
mentary proof  written  by  his  own  hand  and  by 
Emma's  cancels  Nelson's  childish  device  to  throw 
a  too  critical  public  off  the  scent. 

Nelson  was  alternately  weak,  nervous,  careless, 
and  defiant  in  his  attitude  in  regard  to  public 
opinion  concerning  his  private  life.  He  at  one 
time  asserted  the  right  of  living  in  any  way  he 
might  choose,  and  resented  the  criticism  of  a  few 
cackling  busybodies,  even  though  it  was  not  in 
accordance  with  the  views  of  the  late  Mr.  Edward 
Cocker.  It  was  his  affair,  and  if  his  ideas  differed 
from  those  of  his  critics,  it  was  no  business  of  theirs. 
His  independence  in  this,  as  well  as  in  the  practi- 
cal concerns  of  his  profession,  coincided  with  the 
opinions  held  by  Sandy  Mackay  in  Alton  Locke, 
who  declared  that  he  would  "never  bow  down  to 
a  bit  of  brains."  But  these  independent  views 
alternated  with  weaker  ones.  He  was  as  indis- 
creetly lavish  with  his  love  as  he  was  with  his 
money;  at  one  time  he  would  contemptuously 
defy  the  poisoned  arrows  that  were  darted  at  him, 
and  when  beset  by  the  sullen  storm-cloud  of  scan- 
dal, he  let  fly  with  red-hot  courage  and  auda- 
ciously upheld  his  honour;  at  another  time  he  was 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  101 

timid,  vacillating,  and  ridiculous  in  his  attempts 
to  divert  the  public  eye  from  his  love  affair  and  its 
consequence.  People  who  knew  him  intimately 
were  aware  that  Horatia  was  his  daughter,  and 
in  order  to  throw  them  off  their  guard  he  pro- 
ceeded to  invent  a  cock-and-bull  story  of  how 
he  came  by  the  child.  Here  is  his  letter  to  Lady 
Hamilton  written  in  the  middle  of  1804: 

I  am  now  going  to  state  a  thing  to  you  and  to  request 
your  kind  assistance  which,  from  my  dear  Emma's  good- 
ness of  heart,  I  am  sure  of  her  acquiescence  in.  Before 
we  left  Italy,  I  told  you  of  the  extraordinary  circumstances 
of  a  child  being  left  to  my  care  and  protection.  On  your 
first  coming  to  England,  I  presented  you  the  child,  dear 
Horatia.  You  became,  to  my  comfort,  attached  to  it,  so 
did  Sir  William,  thinking  her  the  finest  child  he  had  ever 
seen.  She  is  become  of  that  age  when  it  is  necessary  to 
remove  her  from  a  mere  nurse,  and  to  think  of  educating 
her.  I  am  now  anxious  for  the  child's  being  placed  under 
your  protecting  wing; 

a  clumsy,  transparent  piece  of  foolery,  which  at 
once  confirms  its  intention  to  mislead!  But  we 
are  saved  the  trouble  of  interpretation,  for  the 
father  goes  on  to  write  on  another  piece  of  note- 
paper,  "  My  beloved,  how  I  feel  for  your  situation 
and  that  of  our  dear  Horatia,  our  dear  child." 
It  is  almost  incredible  that  Nelson  could  have 
written  such  a  silly  fabrication.  In  the  early 
part  of  1804,  Emma  gave  birth  to  another  child, 
of  which  he  believed  himself  to  be  the  father. 
He  asked  the  mother  to  call  him  what  she  pleased 


102      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

(evidently  he  hoped  and  expected  a  boy),  but  if  a 
girl,  it  was  to  be  named  Emma.  It  was  a  girl, 
so  it  was  called  after  the  mother,  but  it  did  not 
live  long,  and  the  father  never  saw  it. 

As  though  he  thought  the  letter  written  about 
little  Miss  Thompson  (Horatia,  be  it  understood) 
were  not  sufficiently  delusive,  he  sends  an  equally 
absurd  production  to  his  niece,  Charlotte  Nelson, 
who  lived  a  good  deal  at  Merton,  in  which  he 
says  that  he  is  "truly  sensible  of  her  attachment 
to  that  dear  little  orphan,  Horatia,"  and  although 
her  parents  are  lost,  yet  she  is  not  "without  a 
fortune;  and  that  he  will  cherish  her  to  the  last 
moment  of  his  life,  and  curse  them  who  curse  her 
and  Heaven  bless  them  who  bless  her."  This 
solemn  enthusiasm  for  the  poor  orphan  puts  Nel- 
son out  of  court  as  a  cute  letter-writer.  The 
quality  of  ingenious  diplomacy  had  been  left 
entirely  out  of  him,  and  like  any  one  else  who 
dallies  with  an  art  for  which  they  have  no  gift, 
he  excites  suspicions,  and  more  often  than  not 
discloses  the  very  secret  he  is  so  anxious  to  keep. 
Every  line  of  these  letters  indicates  a  tussle  be- 
tween a  natural  tendency  to  frank  honesty  and 
an  unnatural  and  unworthy  method  of  deception. 
Obvipusly,  the  recipient  of  this  precious  document 
would  have  her  curiosity  excited  over  the  disin- 
genuous tale  of  romance.  She  would  ask  herself 
first  of  all,  "Why  should  my  kinsman  be  so  desir- 
ous to  tell  me  that  the  orphan  in  whom  he  has  so 
fond  an  interest  is   not  without   a  fortune?  and 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  103 

why  should  the  responsibility  of  rearing  and  edu- 
cating the  child  have  been  entrusted  to  him,  the 
most  active  and  important  Admiral  in  the  British 
Navy?  And  if  it  be  true  that  she  is  an  orphan, 
surely  there  could  be  no  object  in  supposing  that 
any  one  would  ' curse  her/  especially  as  he  de- 
clared that  she  was  'not  without  fortune/  and 
that  she  was  to  be  known  as  his  adopted  child." 
The  niece,  being  a  quick-witted  girl,  would  natu- 
rally think  the  problem  out  for  herself,  and  decide 
that  there  was  something  fishy  involved  in  the 
mystery  of  these  unnecessary  phrases. 

In  dealing  with  his  domestic  complications, 
Nelson's  mind  seems  to  have  been  in  a  constant 
whirlwind,  dodging  from  one  difficulty  into  an- 
other, never  direct,  and  for  ever  in  conflict  with 
his  true  self.  He  was  brave  and  resourceful  in 
everything  that  appertained  to  the  service  he 
adorned,  and  yet  a  shivering  fear  came  over  him 
now  and  again  lest  the  truth  concerning  his  attach- 
ment to  his  friend's  wife  should  be  revealed.  When 
he  was  seized  with  these  remorseful  thoughts,  he 
could  not  be  silent;  he  was  not  possessed  of  the 
constitutional  gift  of  reticence,  and  could  only 
find  relief  by  constant  reference  to  the  matter  he 
wished  kept  secret  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  people 
to  put  two  and  two  together  and  arrive  at  the 
very  truth  he  wished  to  hide. 


104     Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

VII 

But  whatever  his  ruling  passion  may  have  been, 
his  belief  in  the  Power  that  rules  us  all  never  for- 
sook him.  He  believed  in  religious  forms  as  well, 
having  a  reverent  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  spirit- 
ual force.  He  often  committed  himself  to  it, 
and  claimed  the  privilege  of  asking  for  Heaven's 
guidance.  Call  it  eccentricity  or  superstition,  or 
what  you  like,  but  to  him  it  was  a  reality.  One 
of  the  many  amusing  instances  of  his  devotion  to 
religious  rites  was  the  occasion  when  he  and  Lady 
Hamilton  stood  as  godfather  and  godmother  at 
the  christening  of  their  daughter,  Horatia  Nelson 
Thompson,1  by  which  name  she  was  baptized. 
To  the  puritanic,  orthodox  mind  (keeping  in  view 
all  the  circumstances  of  parentage)  this  will  be 
looked  upon  as  an  act  of  abominable  hypocrisy 
and  sacrilege,  but  to  him  it  was  a  pious  duty. 

Like  all  highly  strung  and  overwrought  mortals, 
he  was  often  moody,  depressed,  and,  worst  of  all, 
a  victim  to  premonitions  of  his  early  demise.  His 
superstitious  temperament  was  constantly  worry- 
ing him,  as  did  his  faith  in  the  predictions  of  a 
gipsy  fortune-teller  who  had  correctly  described 
his  career  up  to  the  year  1805,  and  then,  stop- 
ping, had  said,  "  I  can  see  no  further."  This  creepy 
ending  of  the  gipsy's  tale  was  afflicting  him  with 

1  The  name  by  which  Nelson  speaks  of  her  occasionally  in  his 
correspondence  with  Lady  Hamilton.  His  daughter  bore  this  name 
before  his  death,  but  he  desired  that  afterwards  she  should  drop  the 
name  of  Thompson. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  105 

a  dumb  pain  and  depression  when  he  unexpectedly 
came  across  his  sister  Catherine  in  London.  She 
referred  to  his  worn,  haggard  look  with  a  tender- 
ness that  was  peculiarly  her  own.  He  replied, 
"Ah!  Katty!  Katty!  that  gipsy!"  and  then 
relapsed  into  morbid  silence.  The  foreboding 
bore  heavily  on  his  mind,  and  the  story  may  well 
make  one's  heart  throb  with  pity  for  the  noble 
fellow  who  was  so  soon  to  fulfil  his  tragic  destiny. 
Well  may  we  exclaim  that  fame  seems  to  be  the 
most  wretched  of  mockeries ! 

The  Duke  of  Wellington,  of  whom  it  is  said  no 
dose  of  flattery  was  too  strong  for  him  to  swallow, 
has  left  on  record  an  interesting  account  of  his 
meeting  Nelson  at  the  Colonial  Office.  He  gives 
the  account  of  it,  thirty  years  after  Nelson's  death, 
to  John  Wilson  Croker  at  Walmer,  and  here  is 
what  he  says  of  Collingwood's  great  comrade: 

Walmer,  ist  October,  1834. 
We  were  [that  is,  Croker  and  he]  talking  of  Lord  Nelson, 
and  some  instances  were  mentioned  of  the  egotism  and 
vanity  that  derogated  from  his  character.  "Why,"  said 
the  Duke,  "I  am  not  surprised  at  such  instances,  for  Lord 
Nelson  was,  in  different  circumstances,  two  quite  different 
men,  as  I  myself  can  vouch,  though  I  only  saw  him  once  in 
my  life,  and  for,  perhaps,  an  hour.  It  was  soon  after  I 
returned  from  India.  I  went  to  the  Colonial  Office  in 
Downing  Street,  and  there  I  was  shown  into  the  little 
waiting-room  on  the  right  hand,  where  I  found,  also  waiting 
to  see  the  Secretary  of  State,  a  gentleman,  whom,  from  his 
likeness  to  his  pictures  and  the  loss  of  an  arm,  I  imme- 
diately recognized  as  Lord  Nelson.     He  could  not  know 


106      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

who  I  was,  but  he  entered  at  once  into  conversation  with 
me,  if  I  can  call  it  conversation,  for  it  was  almost  all  on 
his  side  and  all  about  himself,  and  in,  really,  a  style  so 
vain  and  so  silly  as  to  surprise  and  almost  disgust  me.  I 
suppose  something  that  I  happened  to  say  made  him  guess 
that  I  was  somebody,  and  he  went  out  of  the  room  for  a 
moment,  I  have  no  doubt  to  ask  the  office-keeper  who  I 
was,  for  when  he  came  back  he  was  altogether  a  different 
man,  both  in  manner  and  matter.  All  that  I  had  thought 
a  charlatan  style  had  vanished,  and  he  talked  of  the  state 
of  this  country  and  the  probabilities  of  affairs  on  the  Conti- 
nent with  a  good  sense,  and  a  knowledge  of  subjects,  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  that  surprised  me  equally  and  more 
agreeably  than  the  first  part  of  our  interview  had  done; 
in  fact,  he  talked  like  an  officer  and  a  statesman.  The 
Secretary  of  State  kept  us  long  waiting,  and  certainly, 
for  the  last  half  or  three  quarters  of  an  hour,  I  don't  know 
that  I  ever  had  a  conversation  that  interested  me  more. 
Now,  if  the  Secretary  of  State  had  been  punctual,  and 
admitted  Lord  Nelson  in  the  first  quarter  of  an  hour,  I 
should  have  had  the  same  impression  of  a  light  and  trivial 
character  that  other  people  have  had;  but  luckily  I  saw 
enough  to  be  satisfied  that  he  was  really  a  very  superior 
man;  but  certainly  a  more  sudden  and  complete  metamor- 
phosis I  never  saw."1 

We  must  not  be  too  critical  of  the  Duke's  opin- 
ion of  the  vanity  of  the  Admiral,  but  it  calls  for 
some  notice,  inasmuch  as  the  Duke  himself  is  re- 
puted to  have  had  an  uncommonly  good  amount 
of  it  himself,  though  it  took  a  different  form  and 
created  a  different  impression.  Wellington  showed 
it  in  a  cold,  haughty,  unimaginative,  repelling 
self-importance;  fearful  of  unbending  to  his  infe- 

1  Correspondence  and  Diaries  of  John  Wilson  Croker,  vol.  ii,  p.  233. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  107 

riors  lest  his  dignity  should  be  offended.  Nelson's 
peculiarities  were  the  very  antithesis;  it  was  his 
delightful  egotism  and  vanity  that  added  to  his 
charm  and  made  him  such  a  fascinating  personal- 
ity. His  direct,  slap-dash,  unconventional  phrases 
and  flashes  of  naval  brilliancy,  whether  in  search 
of,  or  engaged  in  battle  with,  the  enemy,  together 
with  a  natural  kindness  to  his  officers  and  men  of 
all  ranks,  filled  them  with  confidence  and  pride 
in  having  him  as  their  chief.  The  "  Nelson  touch," 
the  "drubbing"  he  swore  in  his  own  engaging  way 
that  Mr.  Villeneuve — as  he  called  him  to  Black- 
wood— was  to  have  when  he  caught  him,  the 
putting  of  the  telescope  to  his  blind  eye  at  Copen- 
hagen when  the  signal  was  flying  to  leave  off  action, 
and  the  "No,  damn  me  if  I  do,"  had  an  inspiring 
effect  on  his  men  and  strengthened  the  belief  in 
his  dauntlessness  and  sagacity.  "What  will  Nel- 
son think  of  us?"  remarked  one  of  the  men  aboard 
one  of  the  frigates  that  obeyed  the  signal.  But 
Nelson  went  on  fighting  with  complete  success. 
"Luckily,"  says  Wellington,  "I  saw  enough  to 
be  satisfied  that  he  was  really  a  very  superior 
man."  Why  "luckily"?  What  difference  would 
his  lack  of  knowledge  have  made  ?  The  Duke  was 
hardly  the  type  of  man  to  understand  the  power- 
ful personality  whose  style,  "so  vain  and  silly, 
surprised  and  almost  disgusted"  him.  That  view 
does  not  stand  to  his  credit,  and  no  one  else  held  it. 
But  let  us  see  what  a  greater  man  than  either 
Wellington  or  Nelson  says  of  both.     Napoleon, 


108      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

at  St.  Helena,  spoke  in  very  high  terms  of  Lord  Nel- 
son, l  and  indeed  attempted  to  palliate  that  one  stig- 
ma on  his  memory,  the  execution  of  Caraccioli, 
which  he  attributed  entirely  to  his  having  been 
deceived  by  that  wicked  woman  Queen  Caroline, 
through  Lady  Hamilton,  and  to  the  influence  which 
the  latter  had  over  him.     He  says  of  the  Duke: 

Judging  from  Wellington's  actions,  from  his  dispatches, 
and,  above  all,  from  his  conduct  towards  Ney,  I  should 
pronounce  him  to  be  a  poor-spirited  man,  without  gener- 
osity, and  without  greatness  of  soul  (un  homme  de  peu 
d' esprit,  sans  generosity,  et  sans  grandeur  d'dme).  Such  I 
know  to  be  the  opinion  of  Benjamin  Constant  and  of 
Madame  de  Stael,  who  said  that,  except  as  a  general,  he 
had  not  two  ideas.  As  a  general,  however,  to  find  his 
equal  amongst  your  own  nation,  you  must  go  back  to  the 
time  of  Marlborough,  but  as  anything  else,  I  think  that 
history  will  pronounce  him  to  be  a  man  of  limited  capacity 
(un  homme  borne).2 

Nelson  is  a  brave  man.  If  Villeneuve  at  Aboukir  and 
Dumanoir  at  Trafalgar  had  had  a  little  of  his  blood,  the 
French  would  have  been  conquerors.  I  ought  to  have  had 
Dumanoir's  head  cut  off.  Do  you  not  think  more  highly 
of  Nelson  than  of  the  best  engineers  who  construct  forti- 
fications? Nelson  had  what  a  mere  engineer  officer  can 
never  acquire.     It  is  a  gift  of  nature.3 

The  Emperor,  in  his  eulogy  of  Nelson,  is  not 
unmindful  of  the  terrible  crime  he  was  led  to  com- 
mit at  the  instigation  of  that  human  viper,  Queen 
Caroline,    and   the   licentious    Emma   Hamilton. 

1  O'Meara,  vol.  i,  p.  308. 

2  O'Meara,  Voice  from  St.  Helena,  vol.  ii,  p.  229. 

3  Talks  of  Napoleon  at  Si.  Helena,  Gourgaud,  p.  118. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  109 

He,  to  some  extent,  whittles  down  Nelson's  share 
of  the  responsibility  by  putting  the  whole  blame 
on  them.  But  who  can  read  the  gruesome  story 
of  the  trial  and  hanging  of  the  aged  Prince  Ca- 
raccioli  without  feeling  ashamed  that  a  fellow- 
countryman  in  Nelson's  position  should  have 
stamped  his  career  with  so  dark  a  crime?  At  the 
capitulation  of  St.  Elmo,  Caraccioli  made  his 
escape.  He  commanded  a  Neapolitan  warship 
called  the  Tancredi,  and  had  fought  in  Admiral 
Hothams'  action  on  the  14th  March,  1795,  and 
gained  distinction,  accompanying  the  Royal  Fam- 
ily to  Palermo.  He  was  given  permission  by 
the  King  to  return  for  the  purpose  of  protecting 
his  large  property.  The  French  had  entered 
Neapolitan  territory  and  seized  his  estates,  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  a  Royalist,  and  the  only  way 
he  could  recover  them  was  by  agreeing  to  take 
command  of  the  Neapolitan  fleet.  The  French 
were  obliged  to  evacuate  the  country,  and  left 
their  friends  to  settle  matters  for  themselves  as 
best  they  could.  Caraccioli  concealed  himself, 
but  was  discovered  in  disguise  and  put  on  board 
the  Foudroyant  with  his  hands  tied  behind  his 
back.  Captain  Hardy,  who  was  a  man  with  a 
heart,  was  indignant  when  he  saw  the  old  man 
subjected  to  such  gross  indignity,  and  immediately 
ordered  his  hands  to  be  liberated. 

Nelson  committed  him  for  trial,  which  com- 
menced at  ten  o'clock,  and  at  twelve  he  was  de- 
clared guilty.     At  five  o'clock  he  was  hanged  at 


no      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

the  yardarm  of  the  Neapolitan  frigate  Minerva. 
This  poor  old  man  was  tried  solely  by  his  enemies 
without   being   allowed   to  have   counsel  or  call 
witnesses.     A  miscreant  called  Count  Thurn,   a 
worse  enemy  than  all,  presided  over  the  court. 
Caraccioli  asked  Lieutenant  Parkinson  to  obtain 
for  him  a  new  trial.     Nelson,  who  had  ordered 
the  first,  could  not  or  would  not  grant  a  second. 
Caracciolij  asked   to  be  shot,  and  this  also  was 
refused.     On  the  grounds  of  former  association, 
he  sought  the  aid  of  Lady  Hamilton,  but  she, 
being  an  approving  party  to  the  execution,  only 
came  from  her  concealment  to  enjoy  the  sight  of 
the  old  Prince's  dead  body  dangling  at  the  yard- 
arm.     "Come,  Bronte,  come,"  said  she,  "let  us 
take  the  barge  and  have    another   look   at   Ca- 
raccioli ";  and  there  they  feasted  their  eyes  on  the 
lifeless  remains  of  their  former  associate,  who  had 
assuredly  cursed  them  both  with  his  last  dying 
breath.     It  is  the  custom  when  sailors  are  buried 
at  sea  to  weight  their  feet  so  that  the  body  may 
sink  in  an  upright  position.     The  same  course 
was  adopted  with  Caraccioli;  shot  was  put  at  his 
feet,  but  not  sufficient,  and  he  was  cast  into  the 
sea.     In  a  few  days  the  putrefied  body  rose  to  the 
surface  head  upwards,  as  though  the  murdered 
man  had  come  again  to  haunt  his  executioners 
and  give  them  a  further  opportunity  of  gazing  at 
the  ghastly  features  of  their  victim.1    The  sight 

1  The  body  was  first  seen  floating  by  a  Neapolitan  fisherman,  who 
reported  the  matter,  but  his  story  was  ridiculed.     Finally,  in  order  to 


CAPTAIN  HARDY   OF   THE   "VICTORY." 

After  the  painting  by  L.  F.  Abbott. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  in 

of  his  old  friend  emerging  again  terrified  Ferdinand, 
and  he  became  afflicted  with  a  feeling  of  abiding 
horror  which  he  sought  to  appease  by  having  the 
body  interred  in  a  Christian  burial-ground.  But 
the  spirit  of  his  executed  friend  worried  him  all 
his  remaining  days,  and  the  act  of  burial  did  not 
save  Naples  from  becoming  a  shambles  of  conflict, 
robbery,  and  revolution.  Neither  did  Emma 
Hamilton  escape  her  just  deserts  for  the  vile  part 
she  played  in  one  of  the  most  abominable  crimes 
ever  committed.  Her  latter  hours  were  made 
terrible  by  the  thought  of  the  mockery  of  a  trial, 
and  the  constant  vision  of  the  Prince's  ghost  glow- 
ering at  her  from  the  Minerva  s  yardarm  and  from 
the  surface  of  his  watery  tomb  from  which  he  had 
risen  again  to  reproach  her  with  the  inhuman 
pleasure  she  had  taken  in  watching  the  dreadful 
act.  Nor  did  her  shrieking  avowal  of  repentance 
give  the  wretched  Jezebel  of  a  woman  the  assur- 
ance of  forgiveness.  She  sought  for  distractions, 
and  found  most  of  them  in  wickedness,  and  passed 
into  the  presence  of  the  Great  Mystery  with  all 
her  deeds  of  faithlessness,  deceit,  and  uncontrol- 
lable revenge  before  her  eyes. 

It  is  sad  to  read  of  and  hear  the  insensate  rub- 
bish that  is  talked  of  new  earths  that  are  to  evolve 
from  war,  as  though  it  could  be  divorced  from 


verify  the  statement,  the  principal  actors  in  the  shameful  tragedy  went 
for  a  sail  in  Naples  Bay  and  soon  met  the  body  borne  along  by  the 
swift  current  as  though  to  meet  them.  The  incident  created  a  profound 
impression  at  the  time. 


ii2      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

wounds  and  death,  unspeakable  crime,  suffering 
in  all  its  varied  forms,  and  the  destruction  of  prop- 
erty which  must  always  be  a  direct  result.  The 
spectacle  of  it  can  never  be  other,  except  to  the 
martially  minded,  than  a  shuddering  horror.  I 
would  ask  any  one  who  is  imbued  with  the  idea 
that  out  of  wars  spring  new  worlds  to  name  a 
single  instance  where  a  nation  that  has  engaged 
in  it  has  not  been  left  bleeding  at  its  extremities, 
no  matter  whether  it  emerges  as  victor  or  van- 
quished. I  would  further  ask  the  writer  or  orator 
who  talks  in  this  strain  if  he  imagines  that  the 
sending  of  myriads  of  men  to  death  can  contribute 
to  the  making  of  new  earths.  The  consequences 
are  much  too  tragically  serious  to  the  nation,  and 
indeed  to  the  world,  to  be  played  with  by  smug 
diplomatists  who  seek  to  excite  the  populace  into 
support  of  their  calamitous  efforts  at  statesman- 
ship by  shallow  bursts  of  eloquence  about  the  new 
conditions  of  life  which  are  to  accrue  from  their 
imitation  of  Germanism. 

No  doubt  Nelson  thought,  when  he  had  poor 
old  Prince  Caraccioli  hung,  that  he  would  create 
a  new  earth  by  striking  terror  into  the  hearts 
of  the  Neapolitan  race,  but  natural  laws  are 
not  worked  out  by  methods  of  this  kind,  and 
*  Nelson  had  the  mortification  of  seeing  his 
plan  of  regulating  human  affairs  create  a  new 
and  more  ferocious  little  hell  on  earth.  His 
judgment  at  this  time  was  very  much  warped 
through  the  evil  influence  of  the  Court  of  Naples 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  113 

and  more  especially  by  his  infatuation  for  Lady 
Hamilton. 

Greville,  and  subsequently  Sir  William  Hamil- 
ton, had  taken  great  pains  to  educate  Emma  Hart. 
Hamilton  writes  to  his  nephew:  "I  can  assure 
you  her  behaviour  is  such  as  has  acquired  her 
many  sensible  admirers,  and  we  have  good  man 
society,  and  all  the  female  nobility,  with  the  Queen 
at  their  head,  show  her  every  mark  of  civility/' 
Hamilton  writes  further:  "Hitherto,  her  behav- 
iour is  irreproachable,  but  her  temper,  as  you  must 
know,  unequal.''  Lady  Malmesbury  (with  a  de- 
cidedly sly  scratch)  says  of  her:  "She  really  be- 
haves as  well  as  possible,  and  quite  wonderfully, 
considering  her  origin  and  education."  Sir  Gilbert 
Elliot  says: 

Her  manners  are  perfectly  unpolished,  very  easy,  though 
not  with  the  ease  of  good  breeding,  but  of  a  barmaid;  exces- 
sively good-humoured,  wishing  to  please  and  be  admired  by 
everybody  that  comes  in  her  way.  She  has  acquired  since 
her  marriage  some  knowledge  of  history  and  of  the  arts, 
and  one  wonders  at  the  application  and  pains  she  has  taken 
to  make  herself  what  she  is.  With  men  her  language  and 
conversation  are  exaggerations  of  anything  I  ever  heard 
anywhere;  and  I  was  wonderfully  struck  with  these  in- 
veterate remains  of  her  origin,  though  the  impression  was 
very  much  weakened  by  seeing  the  other  ladies  of  Naples. 

A  naval  lieutenant  at  Naples  stated  he  "thought 
her  a  very  handsome,  vulgar  woman."  There  is 
no  stabbing  with  a  sneer  about  this  opinion.     It 


ii4     Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

expresses  in  a  few  words  the  candid  opinion  of  the 
sailor.     Mrs.  St.  George  thinks  her 

bold,  daring,  vain  even  to  folly,  and  stamped  with  the 
manners  of  her  first  situation  much  more  strongly  than  one 
would  suppose,  after  having  represented  Majesty  and  lived 
in  good  company  fifteen  years.  Her  dress  is  frightful. 
Her  waist  is  absolutely  between  her  shoulders.  Her  figure 
is  colossal,  but,  excepting  her  feet,  which  are  hideous, 
well  shaped.  The  shape  of  all  her  features  is  fine,  as  is 
the  form  of  her  head,  and  particularly  her  ears;  her  teeth 
are  a  little  irregular,  but  tolerably  white;  her  eyes  light 
blue,  with  a  brown  spot  in  one,  which,  though  a  defect, 
takes  nothing  away  from  her  beauty  or  expression.  Her 
eyebrows  and  hair,  which,  by  the  bye,  is  never  clean,  are 
dark  and  her  complexion  coarse.  Her  expression  is  strong- 
ly marked,  variable,  and  interesting;  her  movements  in 
common  life  ungraceful,  her  voice  loud,  yet  not  disagreeable. 

This  female  critic  seems  to  have  been  overburdened 
with  the  weight  of  Emma's  defects,  mental  and 
physical!  Elliot  says:  "Her  person  is  nothing 
short  of  monstrous  for  its  enormity,  and  is  growing 
every  day.  Her  face  is  beautiful."  The  latter 
view  tones  down  the  apparent  desire  not  to  say 
too  much  in  her  favour. 

We  are  persuaded,  in  fact,  that  the  foregoing 
views  of  Lady  Hamilton's  personal  appearance 
are  not  correct.  They  give  the  impression  that 
the  opinions  of  her  critics  are  based  on  the  wo- 
man's lowly  origin,  and  that  they  assume  that 
because  she  was  the  offspring  of  poor  parents  she 
ought  to  be  described  as  a  fat  hoyden  with  the 
manners  of  the  kitchen.     The  people  who  knew 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  115 

her  intimately  do  not  make  her  out  to  be  a  stout, 
unwholesome,  East-End  Palestiner.  The  sister 
of  Marie  Antoinette,  be  it  remembered,  was  her 
close  companion,  and  many  English  ladies  living 
in  Naples  and  visiting  there  were  scarcely  likely 
to  associate  with  a  person  who  could  not  display 
better  looks  and  manners  than  those  set  forth. 
Nelson,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  her  many  other 
men  admirers,  were  hardly  likely  to  tumble  over 
each  other  in  competition  for  her  smiles  and  fav- 
ours if  "her  dress  was  frightful,"  "her  waist  be- 
tween her  shoulders,"  "her  hair  dirty,"  "her  feet 
hideous,"  "her  bones  large,"  "her  complexion 
coarse,"  and  "her  person  monstrous  for  its  enor- 
mity, growing  every  day." 

We  are  inclined  to  place  little  dependence  on 
the  accuracy  of  people  who  seem  to  have  described 
her  according  to  their  moods  or  perhaps  according 
to  the  manner  of  her  admirers  towards  themselves. 
That  she  was  clever  and  attractive  there  can  be 
no  doubt,  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  she  won 
for  herself  the  mortal  enmity  of  many  ladies  who 
saw  her  powerful  influence  over  prominent  men 
and  women  whom  they  themselves  bored.  Some 
importance  must  be  given  to  her  husband's  posi- 
tion as  British  representative;  his  influence  must 
have  been  great,  especially  in  Neapolitan  circles. 
This  would  help  her  natural  gifts  of  fascination, 
even  though  her  breeding  and  education  did  not 
reach  the  standard  of  her  blue-blooded  critics. 
She  had  something  that  stood  her  in  greater  stead 


n6      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

than  breeding  and  education:  she  had  the  power 
of  enslaving  gallant  hearts  and  holding  them  in 
thrall  with  many  artful  devices.  They  liked  her 
Bohemianism,  her  wit,  her  geniality,  her  audacious 
slang,  and  her  collection  of  droll  epithets  that 
fittingly  described  her  venomous  critics  of  a  self- 
appointed  nobility.  When  she  could  not  reach 
the  heights  of  such  superior  persons  she  proceeded 
to  ridicule  them  with  a  tongue  that  rattled  out 
vivid  invective  which  outmatched  anything  they 
could  say  of  her.  It  probably  made  her  more  en- 
emies, but  it  satisfied  her  temper  and  pleased  her 
admirers.  She  never  appears  to  have  been  con- 
scious of  any  inferiority  in  herself.  We  are  in- 
clined to  agree  with  the  opinion  expressed  by  the 
naval  lieutenant  at  Naples,  who  said,  "She  was  a 
very  handsome,  vulgar  woman."  All  her  por- 
traits confirm  what  the  sailor  says  about  her 
beauty,  and  the  most  reliable  records  are  con- 
firmatory so  far  as  his  view  of  her  vulgarity  is 
concerned. 

But  in  any  case,  whatever  may  have  been  her 
physical  dimensions,  they  were  not  understated 
by  the  crowd  who  gave  vent  to  their  aversion  in 
this  and  in  many  other  deplorable  ways.  There 
are  only  a  few  evidences  of  Nelson  being  aware 
of  and  resenting  some  of  the  disparaging  remarks 
made  about  his  "wife  in  the  sight  of  Heaven," 
and  these  do  not  seem  to  have  diminished  his 
infatuation  for  her.  He  was  accustomed  to  say 
in  connection  with  his  professional  duties  that 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  117 

whenever  he  followed  his  own  head  he  was  in 
general  much  more  correct  in  his  judgment  than 
when  following  other  people's  opinions.  He  carried 
this  plan  into  his  private  life  so  far  as  Emma  was 
concerned,  but  men  and  women  who  were  his 
intimate  friends  would  not  support  the  view  that 
by  following  his  head  in  this  particular  case  his 
judgment  was  sound.  We  may  term  the  infatua- 
tion a  deteriorated  state  of  mind,  but  he  was  sus- 
tained by  the  belief  that  she  was  a  spirit  unto 
him  while  he  lived,  and  with  his  last  gasp,  as  he 
was  passing  into  the  shadows,  he  bestowed  her  as 
a  legacy  to  his  country.  We  shall  have  something 
to  say  hereafter  as  to  how  the  British  Government 
dealt  with  their  great  Admiral's  dying  injunction. 

The  Neapolitan  atmosphere  was  vile  enough, 
and  might  well  have  made  even  men  and  women 
who  knew  the  loose  side  of  life  shrink  from  it, 
but  it  can  never  be  claimed  that  it  had  a  demoral- 
izing influence  on  Emma,  who  at  an  early  age  be- 
came familiar  with  unspeakable  vices  which  left 
her  little  to  learn  at  the  time  Greville  sold  her 
to  his  uncle,  who  took  her  to  a  centre  of  sordid 
uncleanness,  there  to  become  his  wife  after  a  brief 
association  as  his  mistress.  We  may  have  no 
misgiving  as  to  her  aptitude  in  acquiring  anything 
she  chose  that  was  left  for  her  to  learn  from  a 
community  of  debauchees  and  parasites. 

The  wonder  is  that  her  brain  did  not  succumb 
to  the  poisonous  influences  by  which  she  was  sur- 
rounded, and  that  the  poor  girl  did  not  sink  into 


n8      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

the  depths  of  that  luxurious  sensuality  which 
characterized  Neapolitan  society  at  that  time. 
It  was  a  more  distinguished  and  fascinating  type 
of  debauchery  than  that  which  she  had  known  in 
other  days  in  England,  and  from  which  Greville 
had  rescued  her.  The  temptation  to  plunge  into 
the  boisterous  merriment  of  a  higher  order  of 
depravity  than  that  to  which  she  had  been  accus- 
tomed must  have  been  very  great  to  such  a  tem- 
perament as  hers.  But  she  worthily  kept  her 
wild,  wayward  spirit  under  restraint,  and,  accord- 
ing to  Sir  William  Hamilton,  she  conducted  her- 
self in  a  way  that  caused  him  to  be  satisfied  with 
his  reforming  guidance.  She  adapted  herself  to 
the  ways  of  the  more  select  social  community  of 
her  new  existence,  and  at  the  time  Nelson  made 
her  acquaintance  she  had  really  become  a  credit- 
able member  of  the  society  in  which  she  moved. 
In  every  respect  she  was  congenial  to  him.  He 
never  lost  a  chance  of  applauding  her  gifts  and 
brazenly  exempting  himself  from  all  moral  re- 
strictions, except,  as  I  have  said  before,  when  he 
was  seized  with  a  spontaneous  fit  of  goodness. 
He  would  then  clumsily  try  to  conceal  the  passion 
that  obsessed  him.  He  did  not  brood  long  over 
trifles  of  this  kind,  merely  because  he  had  lost,  if 
ever  he  possessed,  the  power  of  consecutive  reason- 
ing in  matters  of  moral  convention.  His  Neapoli- 
tan associates  were  a  cunning,  lying,  luxury-loving, 
depraved  lot,  and  however  strongly  his  principles 
were  fixed,  there  can  be  but  one  opinion — that 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  119 

such  an  atmosphere  was  harmful  to  him.  He 
speaks  of  Naples  himself  as  being  a  country  of 
poets,  whores,  and  scoundrels;  and  Southey  does 
not  attempt  to  mince  words,  for  in  vigorous  ternis 
he  describes  England's  "alliances  to  superannu- 
ated and  abominable  governments  of  the  Con- 
tinent." These  are  the  states  that  we  shed  British 
blood  and  squandered  British  money  over,  and 
in  truth  Southey  describes  them  as  they  were! 

The  King  of  Naples  was  a  great  hero  to  stand 
up  against  the  bravest,  best-trained  troops  in  the 
world!  He  shivered  at  the  thought  of  Nelson 
going  out  of  his  sight,  and  whimpered  him  into 
staying  to  guard  him  and  his  rotten  kingdom.  It 
was  at  this  period  of  his  gallant  activity  that 
Nelson  became  the  victim  of  fulsome  flattery  and 
the  associate  of  the  most  cunning,  knavish  charla- 
tans in  the  world.  These  creatures  never  ceased 
to  inveigh  against  the  wrongs  they  were  suffering 
for  the  uplifting  of  human  rights,  and  because 
their  great  British  ally  was  in  need  of  their  disin- 
terested and  distinguished  co-ordination.  Nelson 
was  well  aware  of  all  this,  but  could  not  shake 
himself  free.  He  loathed  the  slavering  way  in 
which  flattery  was  extended  to  him,  because  it 
had  a  sickly  resemblance  to  weeping.  He  declares 
of  the  Neapolitan  officers,  "They  are  boasters  of 
the  highest  order,  and  when  they  are  confronted 
with  the  duty  of  defending  hearth  and  home, 
their  courage  ends  in  vapour."  He  avers  that 
they  "cannot  lose  honour,  as  they  have  none  to 


120      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

lose,"  and  yet  he  makes  no  serious  effort  to  un- 
shackle himself  from  a  detestable  position.  Emma, 
the  Queen  and  King  of  Naples,  and  others,  have 
a  deep-rooted  hold  on  him,  and  he  cannot  give 
up  the  cheap  popularity  of  the  Neapolitans.  He 
persuades  himself  that  the  whole  thought  of  his 
soul  is,  "Down,  down,  with  the  French,"  and  that 
it  shall  be  his  "constant  prayer."  Throughout 
the  whole  course  of  his  brilliant  career  it  was 
never  doubted  that  the  French  were  his  great 
aversion,  because  they  were  his  country's  enemies. 
But  the  hysterical  tears  of  Lady  Hamilton  and 
those  of  the  Neapolitan  Queen  proved  too  strong 
for  him.  The  King's  beseeching  fears  were  also 
added  to  an  already  difficult  situation,  which,  he 
persuaded  himself,  could  not  be  ignored  without 
damaging  the  interests  he  was  sent  to  protect; 
so  his  stay  in  the  reeking  cesspool  of  Neapolitan- 
ism  was  prolonged,  but  there  is  no  reason  for 
supposing  that  his  "constant  prayer"  for  the 
extinction  of  the  French  was  any  the  less  ardent. 
The  fatal  day  of  their  catastrophe  was  only  post- 
poned. The  praying  went  on  all  the  same,  with 
more  or  less  belief  in  the  Almighty's  preference 
for  Englishmen. 

VIII 

This  is  a  form  of  cant  to  which  those  whom  we 
regard  as  great  men  are  a  prey.  But  this  pride 
of  race  is  not  confined  to  the  mighty  men  of  valour. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  121 

The  humble  soldier  and  sailor,  and  poorest  and 
richest  of  civilians,  have  the  same  inherent  belief 
in  British  superiority.  They  talk  to  the  Great 
Giver  of  all  power  in  the  most  patronizing  way, 
and  while  they  profess  to  believe  in  His  ordinances 
they  treat  them  as  though  He  were  their  vassal 
and  not  their  Lawgiver.  They  call  upon  Him 
to  break  His  own  laws  and  help  them  to  smite 
those  whom  they  regard  as  enemies,  never  doubt- 
ing the  righteousness  of  their  cause.  The  enemy, 
on  the  other  hand,  believe  that  they  have  a  mono- 
poly of  God,  and  avow  that  their  cause  is  His,  and 
being  His,  they  grimly  ask  Him  to  settle  the  dis- 
pute by  coming  down  on  their  side;  but  should 
they  win  the  fight,  the  glory  of  it  is  seldom  given 
to  the  Power  whose  assistance  is  implored,  but 
ascribed  to  their  own  genius. 

Cromwell  is  a  singular  and  distinguished  excep- 
tion. He  always  gave  all  the  glory  to  God.  Take 
as  an  example  the  battle  of  Dunbar  (though  there 
are  many  instances  of  a  similar  character  that 
could  be  quoted  during  the  Civil  War).  The 
battle  cry  of  the  Parliament  forces  was  "The 
Lord  of  Hosts,"  and  at  the  opportune  moment 
the  commander  of  the  Parliament  army  shouted, 
"Now  let  God  arise,  and  His  enemies  shall  be 
scattered."  The  Ironsides  made  a  fearless  and 
irresistible  rush  at  their  foes,  and  almost  immedi- 
ately Cromwell  saw  the  Covenanters  in  confusion; 
again  he  shouted,  "They  run!  I  profess  they 
run!"    The  quotation  from  the  68th  Psalm  was 


122      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

always  an  inspiration  to  these  religious  warriors. 
Old  Leslie,  the  Scotch  Covenanting  general,  with 
the  patience  of  stupidity,  had  been  mumbling 
petitions  for  hours  to  the  God  of  the  Anointed  to 
form  an  alliance  with  him  to  crush  the  unholy 
rebellion  against  King  and  Covenant.  "Thou 
knowest,  O  God,  how  just  our  cause  is,  and  how 
unjust  is  that  of  those  who  are  not  Thy  people." 
This  moth-eaten  crowd  of  canting  hypocrites  were 
no  match  for  the  forces  who  believed  that  they 
were  backed  by  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  they  were 
completely  routed. 

Sir  Jacob  Astley,  another  Royalist,  on  one  occa- 
sion during  the  Civil  War,  breathed  a  simple 
prayer  with  uplifted  eyes.  "O  Lord,"  said  he, 
"Thou  knowest  how  busy  I  must  be  this  day. 
If  I  forget  Thee,  do  not  Thou  forget  me."  Then 
he  gave  the  word  of  command  to  "March."  He 
was  nevertheless  defeated  at  Stow,  and  seems  to 
have  been  offended  at  the  Deity  for  His  forget- 
fulness,  as  he  bitterly  reproached  his  conquerors 
by  telling  them  that  they  might  go  to  play  unless 
they  fell  out  amongst  themselves. 

Napoleon  carried  on  warfare  under  a  sterner 
and  more  self-reliant  code.  He  had  confidence 
in  and  depended  on  his  own  genius  and  on  nature's 
laws.  There  are  shoals  of  instances  in  his  short 
and  terrific  career  that  indicate  this  belief  in  him- 
self. He  said  to  a  regiment  of  horse  chasseurs 
at  Lobenstein  two  days  before  the  battle  of  Jena, 
"My  lads!  you  must  not  fear  death;  when  sol- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  123 

diers  brave  death,  they  drive  him  into  the  enemy's 
ranks."  On  another  occasion  he  said:  "You  must 
not  fight  too  often  with  one  enemy,  or  you  will 
teach  him  all  your  art  of  war."  This  is  a  thrilling 
truth  which  always  tells  in  war,  and  yet  behind 
all  the  apparent  indifference  to  the  great  mysteri- 
ous force  that  holds  sway  over  human  affairs 
there  was  a  hidden  belief  in  the  power  of  the 
Deity  to  guide  aright  and  give  aid  in  the  hour  of 
need,  even  to  men  of  unequalled  talents  like 
Napoleon  himself.  His  spontaneous  exclamations 
indicate  that  he  did  not  doubt  who  created  and 
ruled  the  universe,  but  how  much  he  relied  on 
this  power  he  never  really  disclosed,  and  it  can 
only  be  a  supposition  gathered  from  utterances 
recorded  by  some  of  his  contemporaries  that  he 
had  a  devout  belief  in  the  great  power  of  Chris- 
tianity. "Ah!"  said  he  one  day,  "there  is  but 
one  means  of  getting  good  manners,  and  that  is 
by  establishing  religion."  At  that  time  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  France  was  at  a  low  ebb,  and  the  sub- 
ject of  religion  was  one  of  the  most  unpopular  and 
risky  topics  to  raise,  but  Napoleon  knew  that  it 
would  have  to  be  tackled  in  the  open  sooner  or 
later,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  authentic  history  that 
he  struggled  to  bring  and  ultimately  succeeded  in 
bringing  back  religious  ordinances  to  France.  He 
declared  that  no  good  government  could  exist  for 
long  without  it.  His  traducers  proclaimed  him 
an  atheist,  and  we  hear  the  same  claptrap  from 
people  now  who  have  not  made  themselves  ac- 


124      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

quainted  with  the  real  history  of  the  man  and  his 
times.  We  do  not  say  he  was  a  saint,  but  he  was 
a  better  Christian  both  in  profession  and  action, 
than  most  of  the  kings  that  ruled  prior  to  and 
during  his  period.  In  every  way  he  excels  the 
Louis's  of  France,  the  Georges  of  Great  Britain  and 
Hanover,  the  Fredericks  of  Prussia,  and  the  Alex- 
anders of  Russia.  The  latter  two  he  puts  far  in 
the  shade,  both  as  a  statesman,  a  warrior,  and  a 
wise,  humane  ruler  who  saw  far  into  futurity,  and 
fought  against  the  reactionary  forces  of  Europe, 
which  combined  to  put  an  end  to  what  was  called 
his  ambition  to  dominate  the  whole  of  creation. 
He  foretold  with  amazing  accuracy  that  from  his 
ashes  there  would  spring  up  sectional  wars  for  a 
time,  and  ultimately  the  selfsame  elements  of 
vicious  mediocrity  that  destroyed  him  would 
bring  about  a  world-conflict  which  would  destroy 
itself. 

The  laws  of  life  are  simple,  but  at  the  same  time 
very  terrible  in  their  consequences  if  ignored  or 
disobeyed.  What  folly  to  imagine  that  any  great 
figure  or  great  tragedy  comes  into  existence  by 
chance!  Napoleon  was  just  as  necessary  to  the 
world  as  was  Cromwell.  Both  had  the  righting 
of  wrongs  and  the  clearing  away  of  the  accumula- 
tion of  centuries  of  chaos  and  misgovernment, 
and  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  they  could 
carry  out  the  necessary  reforms  without  making 
the  authors  of  such  an  intolerable  state  of  things 
angry  and  resentful  at  their  iron  methods  of  dis- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  125 

cipline.  Napoleon  and  Cromwell  possessed  the 
combined  arts  of  war  and  statesmanship  to  a 
higher  degree  than  any  of  their  contemporaries. 
Cromwell  excelled  Napoleon  in  professional  Chris- 
tianity. The  latter  never  paraded  his  ideas  of 
religion,  though  he  acted  on  them  silently  and 
gave  occasional  expression  to  the  thoughts  of  his 
soul.  Indeed,  he  was  too  much  given  to  publicly 
disavowing  the  very  principles  he  believed  in  priv- 
ately. This  plan  or  habit  was  said  to  be  for  the 
purpose  of  creating  controversy.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  when  the  natural  spirit  moved  him  he  would 
declare  his  views  in  the  most  robust  way.  On 
one  of  many  occasions  he  startled  the  Council  of 
State  by  reminding  them  that  a  man  did  not  risk 
being  killed  for  a  few  pence  a  day  or  for  a  paltry 
distinction.  "You  must  speak  to  the  soul/'  he 
declared,  "to  electrify  the  man."  Another  very 
notable  expression  is  here  worth  referring  to,  as 
it  instances  how  practical  and  human  were  his 
views.  "The  heart,"  said  he,  "warms  the  genius, 
but  in  Pitt  the  genius  withers  the  heart,  which 
is  a  very  different  thing";  and  so  it  is  that  Crom- 
well and  he  were  not  dissimilar  in  many  of  their 
attributes.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  Napoleon  never 
tired  of  quoting  or  having  quoted  to  him  some 
striking  characteristic  of  Cromwell.  We  could 
hardly,  with  any  degree  of  good  judgment,  put 
Leslie  the  Covenanter  or  Sir  Jacob  Astley  the 
Royalist,  or  Nelson  the  matchless  naval  strategist 
and  national  hero,  on  a  par  with  either  Cromwell 


126     Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

or  Napoleon.  They  are  only  here  referred  to  in 
connection  with  the  two  unequalled  constructive 
statesmen  and  military  generals  as  representing 
a  type  of  peculiarly  religious  men  who  have  occu- 
pied high  military  and  naval  positions  in  the  service 
of  the  State. 

Hawkins,  Drake,  Frobisher,  Blake  in  Crom- 
well's time,  Nelson  in  Napoleon's,  were  all  fire- 
eating  religious  men,  always  asking  favours  and 
guidance  in  their  perilous  undertakings  from  the 
great  mystic  Power  in  whom  they  believed.  Col- 
lingwood  was  a  great  admiral  and  a  Christian 
gentleman,  who  never  mixed  religion  with  hysteri- 
cal or  dramatic  flashes  of  quarterdeck  language. 
He  was  ostentatious  in  nothing,  and  seemed  to 
observe  a  strictly  decorous  attitude.  Nelson,  on 
the  other  hand,  resembled  a  restless  squirrel,  always 
swift  in  his  instincts,  with  an  enthusiasm  which 
was  contagious.  In  many  ways  he  did  not  adhere 
to  what  is  called  cricket  in  sporting  phrase.  He 
was  accustomed  to  say,  "Never  mind  the  justice 
or  the  impudence  of  this  or  that,  only  let  me 
succeed. "  Then  he  would  proceed  to  ask  the 
Almighty  in  feverish  zeal  to  aid  him  in  the  object 
he  had  in  view. 

He  would  scatter  a  profusion  of  curses  about 
in  relation  to  the  treatment  of  the  Admiralty 
towards  himself,  or  at  his  disappointment  in  not 
getting  to  grips  with  the  French  fleet,  and  then 
proceed  to  ask  Lady  Hamilton  if  they  had  a  nice 
church  at  Merton,  so  that  they  may  set  an  ex- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  127 

ample  of  goodness  to  the  under-parishioners,  and 
"admire  the  pigs  and  poultry,"  etc.  He  finds  on 
several  occasions  that  a  picture  of  Emma  is  much 
admired  by  the  French  Consul  at  Barcelona,  and 
feels  sure  it  would  be  admired  by  Bonaparte, 
and  then  he  continues,  "I  love  you  most  dearly, 
and  hate  the  French  most  damnably."  Sometimes 
he  said  he  hated  the  French  as  the  devil  hated 
holy  water,  which  at  that  time  was  considered  to 
be  the  orthodoxy  of  a  true  Briton.  It  was  quite 
a  pro-British  attitude  to  patronize  the  maker  of 
kings  who  had  kept  the  world  in  awe  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  by  expecting  him  to  admire 
a  portrait  of  a  loose  woman  to  whom  he  referred 
in  the  most  scathing  manner  while  at  St.  Helena. 
Her  reputation  and  Nelson's  connection  with  her 
seems  to  have  been  known  to  him,  as  was  also 
her  connection  with  the  Neapolitan  Court.  His 
indictment  was  terrible. 

Nelson  had  a  weary,  anxious  time  at  the  Toulon 
station.  He  called  it  his  home,  and  said  the  men 
were  in  fine  fighting  trim  and  he  wished  to  God  the 
ships  were  the  same,  but  they  were  in  a  very  dila- 
pidated condition,  not  fit  to  stand  the  bad  weather 
they  were  sure  to  encounter.  The  British  Minister 
at  Naples  wished  to  send  a  Frenchman  who  could 
be  relied  on  with  information  as  to  the  where- 
abouts of  the  French  fleet.  Nelson  replied  that 
he  would  not  on  any  account  have  a  Frenchman 
in  the  British  fleet  except  as  a  prisoner.  He 
would  be  grateful  to  him  for  any  information  he 


128     Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

could  give,  but  not  a  Frenchman  would  be  allowed 
to  come  to  him,  and  adds  that  "his  mother  hated 
the  French."  He  was  enraged  at  the  report 
spread  by  a  fussy  French  Admiral  named  M.  la 
Touche-Treville,  who  was  in  command  at  Toulon. 
It  was  said  that  he  was  sent  to  beat  Nelson  as 
he  had  done  at  Boulogne.  But  he  was  shy  about 
coming  out  and  trying  a  tussle.  Nelson  said  he 
was  a  miscreant,  a  poltroon,  and  a  har.  The 
Frenchman  had  boasted  in  a  publication  that  he 
had  put  the  British  fleet  to  flight.  The  British 
Admiral  took  the  charge  so  seriously  to  heart  that 
he  sent  a  copy  of  the  Victory's  log  to  the  Admiralty 
to  disprove  the  statement  of  the  lying  Admiral 
la  Touche,  and  in  a  letter  to  his  brother  Nelson 
says,  "You  will  have  seen  La  Touche's  letter  of 
how  he  chased  me,  and  how  I  ran.  I  keep  it; 
and  by  God  if  I  take  him,  he  shall  eat  it."  La 
Touche  cheated  Nelson  of  a  sweet  revenge  by 
dying  like  a  good  Christian  before  the  outraged 
British  Admiral  could  get  hold  of  him.  The  news- 
papers of  France  said  he  died  of  fatigue  caused  by 
walking  so  often  to  the  signal  post  at  Sepet,  to 
watch  the  British  fleet;  and  Nelson  stated  "that 
he  was  always  sure  that  would  be  the  death  of 
him,  and  that  if  he  had  come  out  to  fight  him  it 
would  have  added  ten  years  on  to  his  life."  Poor 
Nelson  was  very  sensitive  when  his  professional 
qualities  were  assailed.  He  thought,  and  thought 
rightly,  that  the  blockade  at  Toulon  was  an  un- 
paralleled feat  of  human  patience  and  physical 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  *z§ 

endurance.  He  had  only  been  out  of  his  ship 
three  times  from  May,  1803,  to  August,  1805. 
We  may  write  and  speak  about  this  wonderful 
devotion  to  duty,  but  it  is  only  if  we  take  time 
to  think  of  the  terrific  things  which  the  central 
figure  who  commanded,  and  the  crews  of  the  fleet 
of  rickety,  worn-out,  leaky  baskets — proudly  spo- 
ken of  as  the  "wooden  walls  of  Old  England " — 
had  to  contend  with  and  actually  did,  that  we 
comprehend  the  vast  strain  and  task  of  it  all.  It 
was  because  Nelson  was  ever  being  reminded  by 
some  clumsy  act  of  the  Admiralty  or  thoughtless, 
ignorant  criticism  on  the  part  of  the  politicians 
and  civilian  public  generally  that  the  work  he  and 
the  men  under  him  were  doing  was  not  appre- 
ciated as  it  should  be,  that  he  gave  way  to  out- 
bursts of  violent  resentment.  But  so  far  as  the 
present  writer  has  been  able  to  discover,  his  love 
of  approbation  was  so  strong  that  an  encouraging 
word  of  praise  soon  put  him  in  love  for  the  time 
being  with  those  whom  he  had  lately  cursed. 

He  never  shrank  from  disobeying  the  instruc- 
tions of  whatever  authority  was  over  him  if  his 
judgment  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  he  would 
serve  his  country  better  by  disobedience  and  by 
following  his  own  judgment;  whenever  he  was 
driven  to  do  this  he  was  right  and  those  above 
him  were  wrong,  and  in  each  case  he  was  so  con- 
clusively right  that  no  authoritative  power  dare 
court-martial  him,  or  even  censure  his  conduct, 
since  the  public  believed  more  in  him  than  in 


130      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

them.  When  the  spirit  of  well-balanced  defiance 
was  upon  him,  he  seemed  to  say  to  the  public, 
to  himself,  and  to  those  who  were  responsible  for 
his  instructions,  "Do  you  imagine  yourselves 
more  capable  of  judging  the  circumstances,  and 
the  immeasurable  difficulties  surrounding  them, 
than  I  am,  whose  business  it  has  been  to  watch 
minutely  every  changing  phase  ?  Or  do  you  think 
my  love  of  country  or  glory  so  incomparably 
inferior  to  yours  that  I  would  risk  any  harm  com- 
ing to  it,  or  to  myself  and  the  men  under  me,  if 
I  was  not  sure  of  my  ground?  For  what  other 
reason  do  you  think  I  disobeyed  orders  ?  Do  you 
suppose  I  did  it  in  order  that  some  disaster  should 
be  the  result?  Or  do  you  still  think  that  your 
plan,  right  or  wrong,  should  have  been  carried  out, 
even  though  it  would  be  accompanied  with  appal- 
ling consequences  to  life  and  property?  If  these 
are  your  views,  I  wish  to  remind  you  that  I  am  the 
Indomitable  Nelson,  who  will  stand  no  damned 
nonsense  from  you  or  from  the  enemy  when  I  see 
that  my  country,  or  the  interests  that  I  represent, 
are  going  to  be  jeopardized  by  your  self-assertive 
instructions,  and  I  wish  to  intimate  to  you  that 
there  is  only  one  way  of  dealing  with  a  French- 
man, and  that  is  to  knock  him  down  when  he  is 
an  enemy.  You  have  obviously  got  to  learn  that 
to  be  civil  to  a  Frenchman  is  to  be  laughed  at, 
and  this  I  shall  never  submit  to."  The  Admiralty 
censured  Nelson  for  disobeying  Lord  Keith's 
orders  and,  as  they  claimed,  endangering  Minorca, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  131 

and  also  for  landing  seamen  for  the  siege  of  Capua, 
and  told  him  "not  to  employ  the  seamen  in  any 
such  way  in  future/'  The  Admiralty  were  too 
hasty  in  chastising  him.  He  claimed  that  his 
success  in  freeing  the  whole  kingdom  of  Naples 
from  the  French  was  almost  wholly  due  to  the 
employment  of  British  sailors,  whose  valour  carried 
the  day. 

Nelson  sent  the  First  Lord  a  slap  between  the 
eyes  in  his  best  sarcastic  form.  He  said  briefly, 
"I  cannot  enter  into  all  the  detail  in  explanation 
of  my  motives  which  led  me  to  take  the  action 
I  did,  as  I  have  only  a  left  hand,  but  I  may  inform 
you  that  my  object  is  to  drive  the  French  to  the 
devil,  and  restore  peace  and  happiness  to  man- 
kind"; and  he  continues,  "I  feel  I  am  fitter  to 
do  the  action  than  to  describe  it."  And  then  he 
curtly  and  in  so  many  words  says  to  his  Chief, 
"Don't  you  be  troubled  about  Minorca.  I  have 
secured  the  main  thing  against  your  wish  and 
that  of  Lord  Keith,  and  you  may  be  assured  that 
I  shall  see  that  no  harm  comes  to  the  Islands, 
which  seems  to  be  a  cause  of  unnecessary  anxiety 
to  you."  Incidentally,  the  expulsion  of  the  French 
from  Naples  and  seating  Ferdinand  on  the  throne 
was,  as  I  have  previously  stated,  not  an  unquali- 
fied success,  nor  was  he  accurate  in  his  statement 
that  he  had  restored  happiness  to  millions.  The 
success  was  a  mere  shadow.  He  had  emancipated 
a  set  of  villains.  Troubridge  says  they  were  all 
thieves  and  vagabonds,  robbing  their  unfortunate 


132      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

countrymen,  selling  confiscated  property  for  no- 
thing, cheating  the  King  and  Treasury  by  pocket- 
ing everything  that  their  sticky  fingers  touched,  and 
that  their  villainies  were  so  deeply  rooted  that  if 
some  steps  were  not  taken  to  dig  them  out,  the 
Government  could  not  hold  together.  Out  of 
twenty  millions  of  ducats  collected  as  revenue, 
only  thirteen  millions  reached  the  Treasury,  and 
the  King  had  to  pay  four  ducats  instead  of  one. 
Troubridge  again  intimates  to  his  superior  that 
Ferdinand  is  surrounded  with  a  nest  of  the  most 
unscrupulous  thieves  that  could  be  found  in  all 
Europe.  "Such  damned  cowards  and  villains," 
he  declared,  "  he  had  never  seen  or  heard  of  before." 


IX 

The  French  did  not  mince  matters  when  their 
opportunity  came.  They,  too,  regarded  them  as 
vermin,  and  treated  them  according  to  the  un- 
restrained edicts  of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  organized 
and  administered  by  their  late  compatriots  Sar- 
danapalus,  Danton,  Maximilian,  Robespierre,  and 
their  literary  colleague,  the  execrable  Marat,  who, 
by  the  way,  was  expeditiously  dispatched  by  the 
gallant  Charlotte  Corday. r 

1  This  girl  of  twenty-two,  who  is  known  to  fame  and  immortality, 
purchased  a  dagger,  and  called  on  Marat,  who  was  the  most  infamous 
arch-butcher  of  the  Reign  of  Terror.  He  was  in  his  bath  at  the  time, 
but  this  did  not  prevent  her  from  making  her  way  to  him.  He  wrote 
down  the  names  of  the  conspirators  she  told  him  of  having  seen  in 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  133 

This  method  of  bestowing  the  blessings  of 
Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity  was  received 
by  the  Neapolitans  with  a  frenzy  from  which  there 
sprang  a  demoniac  retaliation.  Societies  were 
formed  to  carry  out  the  most  atrocious  crimes 
against  the  Neapolitan  revolutionists,  whom  the 
Royalists  hated  more  than  they  did  the  French. 
The  fishermen  and  other  miscreants  came  to  a 
solemn  conclusion  that  it  was  clearly  their  duty 
as  a  Christian  people  to  combine,  and  each  choose 
one  whom  they  should  privately  guillotine  when 
the  opportunity  offered.  With  the  idea  of  paying 
a  high  compliment  to  Troubridge,  who  had  so 
splendidly  protected  the  Royalists,  fought  the 
French,  and  subdued  the  revolutionists,  they  made 
him  the  recipient  of  a  decapitated  head  which 
had  proudly  sat  on  the  shoulders  of  a  revolutionist. 
This  trophy  was  actually  sent  to  him  with  his 
basket  of  breakfast  grapes.  In  making  the  pre- 
sent the  gallant  fisherman  conveyed  his  compli- 
ments to  the  Admiral,  and  reminded  him  that  it 
was  a  token  of  his  high  appreciation  of  the  Admiral's 
brilliant  services  to  the  Royalist  cause. 

Normandy,  and  he  told  her  he  would  swiftly  have  them  guillotined. 
The  assurance  had  scarcely  left  his  lips  when  in  an  instant  she  thrust 
the  instrument  of  death  through  his  heart.  She  repudiated  the  stigma 
of  being  thought  a  murderess,  and  believed  that  her  act  would  be  the 
means  of  saving  thousands  of  lives.  She  was  dragged  through  the 
streets,  taken  to  the  executioner,  and  she  asked  for  the  loan  of  his  shears 
and  cut  off  a  lock  of  her  hair.  When  asked  if  she  found  the  journey 
long,  she  replied  with  perfect  composure:  "Oh  no,  I  am  not  afraid  of 
being  too  late."  Subsequently  one  of  the  Girondin  deputies  said  of 
her:  "She  has  killed  us,  but  she  has  taught  us  all  how  to  die." 


134      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

The  Court  was  infested  with  traitors  who  would 
first  carry  out  their  vengeance  against  their  rebel- 
lious compatriots  and  then  cunningly  lay  the 
blame  on  those  under  whose  protection  they  were. 
One  of  their  judges  informed  Troubridge  that  he 
must  have  a  Bishop  to  excommunicate  some  of 
the  traitor  priests  before  he  could  have  them 
executed,  and  the  fine  sailor,  who  was  sick  of  the 
crafty  devils  and  the  task  he  had  been  allocated 
to  carry  out,  replied,  "  For  the  love  of  God  hang 
the  damned  rascals  first,  and  then  let  the  Bishop 
deal  with  them  if  he  did  not  think  hanging  was  a 
sufficient  degradation. "  Nothing  in  the  annals 
of  history  can  surpass  the  effrontery  of  these  in- 
triguers, which  throws  a  lurid  light  on  the  class 
of  administrators  who  associated  with  the  British 
nation  and  spilt  the  blood  of  the  flower  of  our 
land  in  bolstering  up  a  government  that  was  a 
disgrace  and  put  all  human  perfidy  in  the  shade. 

These  allies  of  ours,  who  were  joyously  butcher- 
ing and  robbing  each  other,  demanded  a  British 
warship  to  take  the  priests  to  Palermo,  so  that 
they  might  be  degraded  in  a  proper,  Christian 
fashion  and  then  brought  to  Naples  for  execution. 
Troubridge  was  audaciously  requested  to  appoint 
a  hangman  (it  may  be  he  was  asked  to  combine 
this  with  his  other  naval  duties),  and  knowing 
the  fine  sense  of  noble  dignity  in  the  average 
sailor,  we  can  easily  imagine  the  flow  of  adjectives 
that  accompanied  the  refusal,  and  how  he  would 
relate  the  outrage  to  which  he  had  been  subjected, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  135 

in  quarterdeck  language,  that  need  not  here  be 
repeated,  to  his  superior  officer,  Admiral  Nelson, 
who  must  have  felt  the  degradation  of  being 
selected  to  carry  out  as  dirty  a  piece  of  work  as 
ever  devolved  upon  a  public  servant.  To  fight 
for  his  King  and  country  was  the  joy  of  his  soul, 
but  to  be  selected  as  wet-nurse  to  the  kingdom  of 
Naples  and  the  dignitaries  that  were  at  the  head 
of  it  would  have  been  an  unbearable  insult  to  his 
sense  of  proportion  had  it  not  been  for  the  fulsome 
flattery,  to  which  he  was  so  susceptible,  which 
was  adroitly  administered  by  the  ladies  of  the 
Court,  headed  by  the  Queen  and  supplemented 
by  the  wife  of  Sir  William  Hamilton. 

There  is  always  some  fatal  weakness  about  a 
great  man  that  lures  him  into  littleness,  and  this 
was  an  overwhelming  tragedy  in  Nelson's  career. 
The  approbation  of  men  was  gratefully  received 
and  even  asked  for,  but  the  adoration  of  women 
reduced  him  to  helplessness.  He  was  drugged  by 
it,  and  the  stronger  the  doses,  the  more  efficacious 
they  were.  They  nullified  the  vision  of  the  un- 
wholesome task  he  was  set  to  carry  out  until  his 
whole  being  revolted  against  the  indignity  of  it, 
when  he  would  pour  out  his  wrath  to  Lady  Hamil- 
ton as  he  did  at  the  time  when  Troubridge  would 
report  to  him  his  own  trials.  No  doubt  this 
caused  him  to  realize  the  chaotic  condition  of 
public  affairs,  for  he  writes  to  the  lady  that  "poli- 
tics are  hateful  to  him,  and  that  Ministers  of 
Kings  are  the  greatest  scoundrels  that  ever  lived." 


136      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

The  King  of  Naples,  is,  he  suspects,  to  be  super- 
seded by  a  prince  who  has  married  a  Russian 
Archduchess.  This,  presumably,  had  been  ar- 
ranged by  the  "great  political  scoundrels."  He 
stands  loyally  by  Ferdinand,  but  soon  all  the  work 
of  that  part  of  his  life  that  gave  him  socially  much 
pleasure  and  professionally  so  much  misery  is  to 
be  left  for  evermore,  and  his  great  talents  used  in 
other  and  higher  spheres. 

He  had  retaken  Naples  from  the  French,  who 
had  set  up  the  Parthenopean  Republic  in  1799, 
and  placed  the  tyrant  King  on  his  throne  again; 
after  a  few  more  chequered  years  a  treaty  of  neu- 
trality was  signed  between  France  and  Naples, 
which  was  treacherously  broken  by  Naples.  Fer- 
dinand had  to  fly  to  Sicily,  the  French  troops 
entered  the  capital,  and  Bonaparte,  who  had  been 
marching  from  one  victory  to  another,  cleared  out 
deep-rooted  abuses  and  introduced  reforms  wher- 
ever he  could.  He  had  become  the  terror  and  the 
enemy  of  the  misgoverning  monarchs  of  that 
period,  and  the  French  nation  had  proclaimed  him 
Emperor  in  1804.  He  placed  his  brother  Joseph 
on  the  throne  of  Naples  in  February,  1806;  Joseph 
ruled  with  marked  moderation  and  distinction, 
sweeping  away  much  of  the  foul  canker  of  corrup- 
tion and  introducing  many  beneficent  reforms 
during  his  two  years  of  kingship.  He,  then,  much 
against  his  own  wishes,  became  King  of  Spain, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother-in-law,  Prince 
Joachim  Murat,  the  dashing  cavalry  officer,  whose 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  137 

decorative  exterior  awed  friend  and  foe  and  helped 
to  win  many  a  battle.  His  reign  lasted  from  1808 
until  18 15,  and  was  no  less  distinguished  than  that 
of  Joseph's.  The  fall  of  the  Napoleonic  regime 
was  followed  by  the  fall  of  Murat,  and  the  despi- 
cable and  treacherous  Ferdinand  became  again 
the  king,  and  brought  back  with  him  the  same 
tyrannical  habits  that  had  made  his  previous  rule 
so  disastrous  to  the  kingdom  and  to  himself.  No 
whitewasher,  however  brilliant  and  ingenious, 
can  ever  wipe  out  the  fatal  action  of  the  British 
Government  in  embarking  on  so  ill-conceived  a 
policy  as  that  of  supporting  the  existence  of  a 
bloodsucking  government,  composed  of  a  mis- 
creant ruling  class  headed  by  an  ignoble  king,  all 
living  on  the  misery  and  blood  of  a  semi-civilized 
population.  It  is  a  nauseous  piece  of  history, 
with  which,  under  sagacious  administration,  we 
should  never  have  been  connected. 

The  main  idea  was  to  humble  the  pride  of 
France,  that  thenceforth  there  might  be  peace  in 
Europe.  The  Neapolitan  revolutionists  believed 
that  the  French  intention  was  to  set  up  a  free 
government  and  deliver  them  from  an  unbearable 
despotism.  Quite  naturally,  the  Court  took  an 
opposite  view  in  believing  that  it  foreshadowed 
deportation,  so  they  lost  no  time  in  proclaiming 
it  to  be  conquest  and  merciless  plunder.  Nelson 
urged  the  vacillating  King  to  advance  against 
the  French,  to  trust  in  God's  blessing  being  be- 
stowed upon  him,  his  army,  and  his  cause,  and  to 


138      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

die  like  a  hero,  sword  in  hand,  or  lose  his  throne. 
The  King,  always  dauntless  in  the  absence  of 
danger,  replied  that  he  would  do  this,  trusting  in 
God  and  Nelson.  His  Majesty,  in  tickling  the 
Admiral's  susceptible  spot  by  associating  his  name 
with  that  of  the  Deity,  doubtless  made  a  good 
shot,  and  had  Nelson's  sense  of  humour  been 
equal  to  his  vanity,  he  might  not  have  received  the 
oily  compliment  with  such  delightful  complacency. 
We  can  imagine  the  scorn  with  which  Troubridge 
would  have  received  the  potentate's  reply  had  he 
given  the  same  advice  as  Nelson.  It  is  highly 
probable  that  had  it  been  given  on  the  quarter- 
deck of  his  ship,  the  King  would  have  been  treated 
to  a  vocabulary  that  would  have  impressed  him 
with  the  necessity  of  scrambling  quickly  over  the 
side.  Nelson,  it  is  stated,  turned  the  French  out 
of  Naples,  and  they  were  subsequently  overpowered 
by  a  plan  put  in  force  by  Nelson  and  Troubridge, 
and  carried  into  effect  by  men  from  the  fleet. 
Captain  Hallowell  was  ordered  to  proceed  to 
Civita  Vecchia  and  Castle  St.  Angelo  to  offer 
terms  of  capitulation.  He  reported  the  position 
to  Troubridge,  who  ordered  a  squadron  in  com- 
mand of  Captain  Louis  to  proceed  and  enforce 
the  terms.  The  French,  on  the  other  hand, 
offered  terms,  but  Troubridge,  like  Drake  on  an- 
other occasion,  said  that  he  had  no  time  to  parley, 
that  they  must  agree  to  his  terms  or  fight.  The 
French  Ambassador  at  Rome  argued  that  the 
Roman  territory  belonged  to  the  French  by  con- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  139 

quest,  and  the  British  commander  adroitly  replied 
"that  it  was  his  by  reconquest."  The  inevitable 
alternative  was  impressive — capitulation.  This 
was  arranged,  and  the  Roman  States  came  under 
the  control  of  the  victors.  Captain  Louis  pro- 
ceeded in  his  cutter  up  the  Tiber  and  planted  the 
British  colours  at  Rome,  becoming  its  governor 
for  a  brief  time.  The  naval  men  had  carried  out 
by  clever  strategy  and  pluck,  an  enterprise  which 
Sir  James  Erskine  declined  to  undertake  because 
of  the  insurmountable  difficulties  he  persisted  in 
seeing.  General  Mack  was  at  the  head  of  about 
30,000  Neapolitan  troops,  said  to  be  the  finest  in 
Europe.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent  them 
from  being  annihilated  by  15,000  French,  when 
General  Championnet  evacuated  Rome.  The 
King  entered  with  all  the  swagger  of  an  Oriental 
potentate.  The  Neapolitans  followed  the  French 
to  Castellana,  and  when  the  latter  faced  up  to 
them  they  stampeded  in  disordered  panic.  Some 
were  wounded,  but  few  were  killed,  and  the  King, 
forgetting  in  his  fright  his  pledged  undertaking 
to  go  forth  trusting  in  "God  and  Nelson,"  fled  in 
advance  of  his  valiant  soldiers  to  the  capital, 
where  they  all  arrived  in  breathless  confusion. 
General  Mack  had  been  introduced  to  Nelson  by 
the  King  and  Queen,  the  latter  exhorting  him  to 
be  on  land  what  the  Admiral  had  been  on  sea. 

Nelson  seems  to  have  formed  an  adverse  opin- 
ion of  Mack,  who  was  extolled  by  the  Court  as 
the  military  genius  who  was  to  deliver  Europe 


140      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

from  the  thraldom  of  the  French.  He  had  ex- 
pressed the  view  that  the  King  and  Queen's  incom- 
parable general  "could  not  move  without  five 
carriages,"  and  that  her  "had  formed  his  opinion" 
of  him,  which  was  tantamount  to  saying  that 
Mack  was  both  a  coward  and  a  traitor.  Perhaps 
it  was  undue  consideration  for  the  feelings  of 
Caroline,  sister  to  the  late  Marie  Antoinette,  that 
caused  him  to  restrain  his  boiling  rage  against 
this  crew  of  reptiles,  who  had  sold  every  cause 
that  was  entrusted  to  their  protection. 

Nelson  was  infatuated  with  the  charms  of  Caro- 
line, and  as  this  astute  lady  knew  how  to  handle 
him  in  the  interests  of  the  Neapolitan  Court,  he 
reciprocated  her  patronage  by  overlooking  mis- 
deeds that  would,  under  different  circumstances 
have  justified  him  in  blowing  swarms  of  her  noble 
subjects  out  of  existence.  "I  declare  to  God," 
he  writes,  "my  whole  study  is  how  to  best  meet 
the  approbation  of  the  Queen."  An  open  door 
and  hearty  reception  was  always  awaiting  their 
Majesties  of  Sicily  on  board  Nelson's  flagship 
when  they  found  it  necessary  to  fly  from  the 
wrath  of  their  downtrodden  subjects  or  the  aggres- 
sive invasions  of  the  French  troops.  The  anxiety 
of  Nelson  in  conveying  them  to  their  Sicilian 
retreat  was  doubly  increased  by  the  vast  treasure 
they  never  neglected  to  take  with  them,  and 
neither  the  sources  from  which  it  came  nor  the 
means  of  spending  it  gave  trouble  to  their  con- 
sciences.   The  British  Government,  always  gener- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  H1 

ouswith  other  person's  money,  fed  these  insufferable 
royal  personages  by  bleeding  the  life's  blood  out 
of  the  British  public,  though  it  is  fair  to  say  that 
the  Government  did  not  carry  out  to  the  full  the 
benevolent  suggestions  Nelson  consistently  urged 
in  their  behalf.  "His  heart  was  always  breaking" 
at  some  act  of  parsimony  on  the  part  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  so  tardily  giving  that  which  he  pleaded 
was  an  urgent  necessity  for  them  to  have.  He 
frankly  avowed  that  he  would  prefer  to  resign  if 
any  distinction  were  to  be  drawn  between  loyalty 
to  his  rightful  sovereign  and  that  of  his  Sicilian 
Majesty,  who  was  the  faithful  ally  of  his  King. 
The  solemn  audacity  of  this  statement  reveals  a 
mind  so  far  fallen  to  pieces  by  infatuation  that  it 
has  lost  the  power  of  discrimination. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  this  gracious  ally 
promised  Nelson  that  he  would  go  forth  at  the 
head  of  his  troops  and  conquer  or  die,  and  then 
scampered  off  in  front  of  his  army  through  Rome 
to  Naples,  and,  after  a  few  days'  concealment 
from  the  mob,  secretly  bundled  into  boats  with 
his  retinue  on  a  stormy  night  of  great  peril,  em- 
barked on  the  Admiral's  ship,  and  sailed  for 
Palermo. 

Lady  Hamilton  is  credited  with  planning  (with 
heroic  skill)  means  by  which  the  royal  family 
could  be  taken  to  the  shore,  where  Nelson  was 
to  receive  and  convoy  them  in  barges  to  the 
Vanguard.  Lady  Hamilton  had  explored  a  sub- 
terranean passage  which  led  from  the  palace  to 


1 42      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

the  beach,  and  pronounced  it  a  fairly  safe  and 
possible  means  of  exit.  The  plan  apparently 
succeeded,  and  the  royal  party,  after  a  few  days' 
precautionary  stay  in  the  Bay  of  Naples,  were 
conveyed  in  safety  to  Palermo,  notwithstanding  the 
hurricane  that  was  encountered  and  weathered 
only  by  a  perfection  of  seamanship  that  was  un- 
equalled in  our  naval  and  merchant  services  at 
that  period  of  our  trying  history.  The  voyage 
was  not  made  without  tragedy,  for  the  youngest 
of  the  princes  became  ill,  and  as  it  is  always  inevit- 
able to  attach  a  heroine  to  circumstances  that 
are  sensational  (when  there  is  one  at  hand),  their 
Majesties  in  their  grief  fixed  on  her  who  had 
braved  the  perils  of  investigating  the  possibilities 
of  the  subterranean  tunnel  which  had  proved  a 
safe  though  hazardous  passage  for  the  conveyance 
of  themselves  and  their  vast  treasure.  Nor  do 
they  appear  to  have  been  unmindful  of  her  devo- 
tion to  themselves  during  the  storm,  which  was 
the  severest  that  Nelson  said  he  had  ever  experi- 
enced— though  this  is  a  platitude,  as  sailors  are 
always  prone  to  regard  the  last  storm  as  the  most 
terrific  of  all!  But  that  it  was  severe  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  We  may  be  assured  that  the  royal 
parents  were  not  in  a  condition  to  give  succour 
to  their  stricken  son,  so  he  was  vouchsafed  to  pass 
beyond  the  veil  in  the  arms  of  Lady  Hamilton, 
who  had  bravely  defied  the  tempest  and  behaved 
with  a  compassion  that  must  always  stand  to  her 
credit. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  H3 

They  arrived  at  Palermo  the  day  after  the  young 
Prince's  death,  and  soon  settled  down  to  their 
gambling  and  other  pleasures  in  which  Nelson, 
as  already  stated,  was  involved.  Troubridge, 
with  touching  fidelity,  pleads  with  him  to  shun 
the  temptations  by  which  he  is  beset.  "I  dread, 
my  Lord,"  he  says,  "all  the  feasting,  etc.,  at 
Palermo.  I  am  sure  your  health  will  be  hurt.  If 
so,  all  their  saints  will  be  damned  by  the  Navy"; 
and  then  he  goes  on  to  say,  "The  King  would  be 
better  employed  digesting  a  good  government; 
everything  gives  way  to  their  pleasures.  The 
money  spent  at  Palermo  gives  discontent  here; 
fifty  thousand  people  are  unemployed,  trade  dis- 
couraged, manufactures  at  a  stand.  It  is  the 
interest  of  many  here  to  keep  the  King  away; 
they  all  dread  reform."1  Troubridge  was  well- 
nigh  driven  to  distraction  by  the  terrible  straits 

TROUBRIDGE'S  BLUFF  LETTER  TO  LORD  NELSON 

"Pardon  me,  my  Lord,  it  is  my  sincere  esteem  for  you  that  makes 
me  mention  it.  I  know  you  have  no  pleasure  in  sitting  up  all  night  at 
cards;  why  then  sacrifice  your  health,  comfort,  purse,  ease,  everything, 
to  the  customs  of  a  country  where  your  stay  cannot  be  long?  I  would 
not,  my  Lord,  reside  in  this  country  for  all  Sicily.  I  trust  the  war  will 
soon  be  over,  and  deliver  us  from  a  nest  of  everything  that  is  infamous, 
and  that  we  may  enjoy  the  smiles  of  our  countrywomen. 

"Your  Lordship  is  a  stranger  to  half  that  happens,  or  the  talk  it  occa- 
sions; if  you  knew  what  your  friends  feel  for  you,  I  am  sure  you  would 
cut  all  the  nocturnal  parties.  Gambling  of  the  people  at  Palermo  is 
publicly  talked  of  everywhere.  I  beseech  your  Lordship  leave  off. 
I  wish  my  pen  could  tell  you  my  feelings,  I  am  sure  you  would  oblige 
me. 

"I  trust  your  Lordship  will  pardon  me;  it  is  the  sincere  esteem  I 
have  for  you  that  makes  me  risk  your  displeasure." 

No  reply,  so  far  as  is  known,  was  ever  sent  to  this  outspoken  letter. 


H4       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

he  was  put  to  at  Naples.  The  people  were  faced 
with  the  ravages  of  famine.  Already  there  were 
scenes  of  unspeakable  misery.  His  appeals  to 
the  Sicilian  Court  to  send  immediate  relief  were 
ignored.  Nelson,  to  whom  he  had  appealed,  was 
absorbed  in  his  attentions  to  Lady  Hamilton,  and 
refused  to  see  the  vicious  indifference  of  the  Court, 
who  were  hemmed  round  with  a  set  of  knaves  and 
vagabonds,  if  that  be  not  too  moderate  a  term  to 
use  of  them.  Troubridge  beseeches  him  to  come 
to  the  rescue  in  the  following  terms: 

My  Lord,  we  are  dying  off  fast  for  want.  I  learn  that 
Sir  William  Hamilton  says  Prince  Luzzi  refused  corn, 
some  time  ago,  and  Sir  William  does  not  think  it  worth 
while  making  another  application.  If  that  be  the  case, 
I  wish  he  commanded  this  distressing  scene,  instead  of 
me.  Puglia  had  an  immense  harvest:  near  thirty  sail 
left  Messina,  before  I  did,  to  load  corn.  Will  they  let  us 
have  any?  If  not,  a  short  time  will  decide  the  business. 
The  German  interest  prevails.  I  wish  I  was  at  your 
Lordship's  elbow  for  an  hour.  All,  all,  will  be  thrown  on 
you:  I  will  parry  the  blow  as  much  as  in  my  power;  I 
foresee  much  mischief  brewing.  God  bless  your  Lordship ! 
I  am  miserable,  I  cannot  assist  your  operations  more. 
Many  happy  returns  of  the  day  to  you  (it  was  the  first  of 
the  New  Year).  I  never  spent  so  miserable  a  one.  I 
am  not  very  tender-hearted,  but  really  the  distress  here 
would  even  move  a  Neapolitan. 

Shortly  after  he  writes,  again  pouring  out  fresh 
woes: 

I  have  this  day  saved  thirty  thousand  people  from  star- 
vation; but   with   this   day   my   ability   ceases.     As   the 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  145 

Government  are  bent  on  starving  us,  I  see  no  alternative 
but  to  leave  these  poor  people  to  perish,  without  our  being 
witness  of  their  distress.  I  curse  the  day  I  ever  served 
the  Neapolitan  Government.  We  have  characters,  my 
Lord,  to  lose;  these  people  have  none.  Do  not  suffer  their 
infamous  conduct  to  fall  on  us.  Our  country  is  just,  but 
severe.  Such  is  the  fever  of  my  brain  this  minute,  that 
I  assure  you,  on  my  honour,  if  the  Palermo  traitors  were 
here,  I  would  shoot  them  first,  and  then  myself.  Girgenti 
is  full  of  corn;  the  money  is  ready  to  pay  for  it;  we  do 
not  ask  it  as  a  gift.  Oh!  could  you  see  the  horrid  distress 
I  daily  experience,  something  would  be  done.  Some  en- 
gine is  at  work  against  us  at  Naples,  and  I  believe  I  hit  on 
the  proper  person.  If  you  complain,  he  will  be  immediately 
promoted,  agreeably  to  the  Neapolitan  custom.  All  I 
write  to  you  is  known  at  the  Queen's.  For  my  own  part,  I 
look  upon  the  Neapolitans  as  the  worst  of  intriguing  ene- 
mies; every  hour  shows  me  their  infamy  and  duplicity. 
I  pray  your  Lordship  be  cautious;  your  honest  open  man- 
ner of  acting  will  be  made  a  handle  of.  When  I  see  you 
and  tell  you  of  their  infamous  tricks,  you  will  be  as  much 
surprised  as  I  am.     The  whole  will  fall  on  you. 

Nelson  must  have  known  the  position  set  forth 
in  this  feverish  communication  from  a  man  whose 
judgment  and  affection  he  had  no  reason  to  sus- 
pect. It  is  a  deplorable  example  of  infatuation 
that  everyone  who  knew  the  Court  and  the  rascals 
that  surrounded  it  was  aware  of  its  shameless 
tricks  except  Nelson  himself.  They  protested 
that  they  had  withdrawn  the  restrictions  on  the 
exportation  of  corn  so  far  as  they  could,  and  he 
swallowed  their  lies  with  the  simplicity  of  a  child. 
He  must  have  been  the  victim  of  mesmeric  influ- 


146       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

ence  not  to  see  through  their  vile  knavery  in  plead- 
ing poverty  when  they  were  asked  to  carry  out 
an  act  of  common  humanity.  All  very  well  for 
him  to  groan  over  what  he  had  to  endure,  and  to 
complain  that  the  burden  of  it  had  broken  his 
spirit!  Troubridge  diagnosed  the  malady  when 
he  implored  Nelson  to  relinquish  the  infatuation 
which  was  leading  him  into  trouble.  Why,  in- 
stead of  spending  his  time  with  Lady  Hamilton 
and  fawning  over  the  King  and  Queen,  did  he 
leave  the  right  thing  to  be  done  by  Captain  Ball 
(who  took  the  bull  by  the  horns)  ?  All  very  well 
for  him  to  pour  out  his  wrath  to  the  Duke  of 
Clarence,  that  his  "constant  thought  was  down, 
down  with  the  damned  French  villains !"  and 
that  his  "blood  boiled  at  the  name  of  a  French- 
man!" But  except  that  we  were  at  war  with  the 
French,  were  they  in  any  degree  such  "damned 
villains"  as  the  Neapolitans  and  the  whole  crew 
of  Court  knaves,  with  whom  he  was  so  blindly 
enamoured,  who  were,  in  reality,  ready  to  sell 
their  own  country  and  his  to  the  French  when- 
ever they  saw  it  was  to  their  material  advantage  to 
do  so? 

Captain  Ball  did  not  waste  time  in  the  use  of 
adjectives  about  the  French  and  the  daily  "anxie- 
ties" that  bore  so  heavily  on  himself  and  others, 
"breaking  his  heart."  He  gave  peremptory  or- 
ders to  his  first  lieutenant  to  proceed  off  Messina 
and  seize  the  ships  that  were  lying  there  loaded 
with  corn,  and  bring  them  to  Malta.     He  defied 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  147 

the  abominable  Court  of  Sicily  and  their  edicts 
prohibiting  exportation,  and  his  instructions  were 
carried  out.  He  awaited  the  consequences  to 
himself  with  a  manly  consciousness  that  humanity 
must  take  precedence  of  orders  dictated  by  a 
sentimental  fear  lest  the  feelings  of  a  set  of  cowardly 
despots  should  be  hurt.  This  single  act  of  real 
courage  and  decision  saved  the  lives  of  thousands 
of  starving  people,  and  prevented  the  siege  from 
being  raised.  The  Court  of  Naples  dared  not 
utter  a  word  of  condemnation  against  Captain 
Ball,  but  the  Governor  of  Malta  became  the  object 
of  their  nervous  enmity,  which  they  dare  not  put 
into  practice. 

Lord  Minto,  many  years  after  the  events  of 
which  I  am  writing,  said  of  Nelson,  for  whom  he 
had  an  affectionate  regard,  that  "he  was  in  many 
points  a  really  great  man,  but  in  others  he  was  a 
baby."  No  one  who  has  studied  his  career  will 
ever  doubt  his  greatness,  but  his  peevish  childish- 
ness, even  when  he  was  responsible  for  the  carry- 
ing out  of  great  deeds  that  did  not  come  so  quickly 
as  his  eager  spirit  craved,  ofttimes  tried  the  pa- 
tience of  those  who  set  high  value  on  his  match- 
less talents  and  his  otherwise  lovable  disposition. 
He  was  never  known  to  take  credit  to  himself  that 
was  due  to  others,  but,  like  most  great  men,  he 
took  for  granted  that  all  those  above  or  below  him 
in  rank  and  station  should  be  subordinate  to  his 
whims  and  actions.  He  could  only  accommodate 
himself  to  being  subordinate  to  his   King,   the 


148      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

King  and  Queen  of  Naples,  and  to  the  exhilarat- 
ing influence  of  Lady  Hamilton.  Almost  imme- 
diately after  the  seizure  of  the  grain-laden  ships, 
Nelson  sailed  for  Malta,  and  had  the  good  fortune 
to  sight  a  French  squadron,  the  Genereux,  three 
frigates,  and  a  corvette;  after  an  exciting  and 
hard  chase,  he  came  up  to  them,  knocked  their 
masts  over  the  side,  and  captured  the  Genereux 
and  a  frigate. 

X 

Nelson  hit  on  a  simple  though  ingenious  plan 
that  was  frequently  adopted  in  subsequent  years 
by  captains  in  the  merchant  service  when  racing, 
which  always  created  excitement  amongst  the 
crew;  the  order  was  given  to  knock  the  wedges 
out  of  the  deck  coamings,  ease  the  strain  off  the 
fore  and  aft  stays,  and  when  it  was  judicious  to 
do  it  the  pinch  on  the  main  rigging  was  also  eased 
to  give  the  masts  more  play.  The  wind-jammer 
seamen  knew  when  this  order  was  given  that  they 
were  in  for  a  time  of  "cracking  on,"  and  really 
enjoyed  both  the  sport  and  the  risk  that  it  in- 
volved, even  in  the  hands  of  skilful  commanders. 
By  this  means  the  speed  was  always  increased, 
and  it  was  quite  a  common  practice  on  tea-clippers, 
Australian  passenger  vessels,  and  American  pack- 
ets. The  commander  rarely  left  the  quarter- 
deck on  those  occasions,  unless  his  officers  were 
really  first-class  men.     The  writer  has  often  at- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  149 

tained  successful  results  when  racing  by  putting 
invigorating  life  into  his  ship  by  these  old-time 
methods  which  were  handed  down  to  each  genera- 
tion of  sailors.  No  class  of  seamen  knew  more 
dainty  tricks  in  manipulating  sails  and  rigging 
than  those  who  manned  the  slave-runner,  the 
smuggler,  and  the  pirate  schooner.  Their  vessels 
were  designed  for  speed,  but  ofttimes  when  they 
were  in  a  tight  place  they  were  saved  from  being 
destroyed  by  the  superb  nautical  dodges  which 
they  alone  knew  so  well  how  and  when  to  put  in 
use  so  that  their  pursuers  might  be  outwitted  and 
out-distanced.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  the 
Genereux  would  have  got  away  had  Nelson  not 
been  a  past  master  in  all  kinds  of  dodges  to  make 
his  ship  sail  faster.  He  knew  that  some  of  the 
French  ships  were  notoriously  equal  to  the  British 
in  sailing  qualities,  but  he  left  nothing  to  chance. 
Every  drop  of  water  was  ordered  to  be  pumped 
out  of  the  hold;  the  wedges  were  removed  from 
the  masts'  coaming;  the  stays  slackened;  butts 
of  water  were  hung  on  them;  hammocks  were 
piped  down;  every  available  sail  was  crowded  on 
to  her;  the  most  reliable  quartermasters  were 
stationed  at  the  wheel.  The  Foudroyant  is  gaining 
— she  draws  ahead.  The  stump  of  the  '"heaven- 
born"  Admiral's  right  arm  is  working  with  agita- 
tion as  his  ship  takes  the  lead.  It  is  now  all  up 
with  the  Genereux.  She  surrenders  after  a  terrific, 
devastating  duel,  and  Nelson  avows  that  had  he 
acted  according  to  Lord   Keith's  instead  of  his 


150      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

own  strategy,  she  would  never  have  been  taken. 
The  Guillaume  Tell  had  been  locked  up  in  Malta 
Harbour  for  some  time,  and  the  commander  de- 
cided to  run  the  gauntlet,  his  reason  being,  it  is 
stated,  to  relieve  the  starving  garrison  from  hav- 
ing to  feed  his  ship's  company,  which  consisted 
of  from  iooo  to  1200  men.     She  was  intercepted, 
engaged,  and  ultimately  taken  by  the  Foudroyant, 
Lion,  and  Penelope  after  all  her  masts  had  been 
shot  away.     The  thrilling  story  of  this  sea  battle 
takes  high  rank  in  naval  warfare.     The  French 
ship  was  fought  with  the  fury  of  courage  and  genius 
that  Nelson  himself  could  not  have  failed  to  admire. 
The  Penelope  and  Lion  had  been  mauled  off  when 
the  Foudroyant  came  on  the  scene  and  shot  away 
her  main  and  mizzenmasts,  when  a  French  sailor, 
like  Jack  Crawford  of  Sunderland  at  the  battle 
of  Camperdown,  nailed  the  ensign  to  the  stump 
of  the  mizzen  mast.     The  foremast  was  the  only 
mast  now  remaining,  and  it  was  soon  sent  flying 
over  the  side  by  the  terrific  firing  from  the  British 
ship.     She  then  took  her  colours  down,   ceased 
firing,  and  became  the  prize  of  the  heroes  who  had 
fought  and  conquered.     Nelson  might  and  ought 
to  have  had  the  glory  of  taking  the  last  of  the  Nile 
fleet,  had  he  not  allowed  a  perverse  spirit  to  rule  his 
will.     He   nursed   and   inflamed  his    imagination 
against  Lord   Keith   being  put  over  him,   until 
that  fine  zeal  that  was  so  natural  to  him  slackened. 
He  writes  to  Hamilton  that  his  "situation  is  irk- 
some.,,     "Lord  Keith  is  commander-in-chief,  and 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  151 

he  (Nelson)  has  not  been  kindly  treated."  He  tells 
Spencer  that  he  has  written  to  Lord  Keith,  asking 
for  permission  to  come  to  England,  when  he  (the 
First  Lord)  will  "see  a  broken-hearted  man,"  and 
that  his  "spirit  cannot  submit  to  it."  The  Ad- 
miralty may  have  been  inspired  to  place  Lord 
Keith  in  supreme  command  owing  to  Nelson's 
association  with  the  Court  party  at  Palermo  and 
the  growing  scandal  attached  to  it.  But  in  that 
case  they  should  have  frankly  told  him  that  they 
feared  the  effect  his  dallying  at  Palermo  might 
have  on  the  service  in  many  different  ways. 

Troubridge  and  Captain  Ball  urged  him  with 
all  the  sincerity  of  devotion  not  to  return  to  Sicily, 
but  to  remain  at  Malta,  and  sign  the  capitulation 
which  was  near  at  hand ;  but  they  could  not  alter 
his  resolve  to  leave  the  station,  which  Troubridge 
said  was  due  to  the  passion  of  infatuation  and 
not  to  illness,  which  he  had  ascribed  as  the  reason. 
Nelson  tried  the  patience  of  the  First  Lord  (who 
was  his  friend)  so  sorely  that  he  wrote  him  a 
private  letter  which  was  couched  in  gentle  though, 
in  parts,  cutting  reproaches.  He  obviously  be- 
lieved that  the  plea  of  ill-health  was  groundless, 
or  at  all  events  not  sufficiently  serious  to  justify 
his  giving  up.  He  very  fairly  states  that  he  is 
quite  convinced  that  he  will  be  more  likely  to 
recover  his  health  in  England  than  by  an  inactive 
stay  at  the  Court  of  Sicily,  however  pleasing  the 
gratitude  shown  him  for  the  services  he  has  ren- 
dered may  be,  and  that  no  gratitude  from  that 


i52       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Court  can  be  too  great  in  view  of  the  service  he 
had  bestowed  upon  it.  Lord  Minto,  who  was 
Ambassador  at  Vienna,  says  he  has  letters  from 
Nelson  and  Lady  Hamilton  which  do  not  make  it 
clear  whether  he  will  go  home  or  not.  He  hopes 
he  will  not  for  his  own  sake,  for  he  wants  him  to 
take  Malta  first;  and  continues,  "He  does  not 
seem  conscious  of  the  sort  of  discredit  he  has  fallen 
into,  or  the  cause  of  it,  for  he  still  writes,  not 
wisely,  about  Lady  Hamilton  and  all  that,"  and 
then  generously  states,  "But  it  is  hard  to  condemn 
and  use  ill  a  hero,  as  he  is  in  his  own  element,  for 
being  foolish  about  a  woman  who  has  art  enough 
to  make  fools  of  many  wiser  than  an  Admiral." 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  doubt  that  Nelson  felt 
keenly  mortified  at  losing  the  opportunity  of 
personally  taking  the  Guillaume  Tell;  but  whether 
he  did  or  not,  he  managed  to  subdue  all  appear- 
ance of  envy  and  paid  a  high,  sportsmanlike  tribute 
to  those  who  had  earned  the  honour.  He  could 
not  help  flavouring  it,  however,  with  some  words 
of  Nelsonian  self-approbation.  He  said  he 
gloried  in  them,  for  they  were  his  children,  they 
served  in  his  school,  and  all  of  them,  including 
himself,  caught  their  professional  zeal  and  fire 
from  the  great  and  good  Earl  St.  Vincent.  Then 
he  goes  on  to  say  that  it  is  a  great  happiness  to 
have  the  Nile  fleet  all  taken  under  his  orders  and 
regulations.  He  slyly  claimed  the  glory  of  train- 
ing and  inspiring,  though  he  had  deprived  himself 
of  added  fame  by  nourishing  a  morose  feeling  of 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  153 

jealousy  against  Lord  Keith,  who  had  been  sent 
out  after  a  few  months'  leave  to  take  up  his  posi- 
tion as  commander-in-chief.  Owing  to  his  ab- 
sence, Nelson  had  acted  in  that  capacity,  and  he 
could  not  bear  the  thought  of  being  superseded 
by  his  old  chief.  In  fact,  Nelson  could  not  toler- 
ate being  placed  in  a  secondary  position  by  any 
one.  As  I  have  already  stated,  he  put  Keith's 
authority  at  defiance  and  took  responsibilities 
upon  himself,  boasting  that  had  they  failed  he 
would  have  been  "shot  or  broke." 

After  the  capture  of  the  Genereux  he  struck, 
and  wrote  to  Keith  that  his  health  would  not 
permit  of  his  remaining  at  his  post,  that  without 
"rest  he  was  done  for,"  and  that  he  could  "no 
more  stay  fourteen  days  longer  on  the  station 
than  fourteen  years."  At  the  same  time,  Captain 
Ball  wrote  to  Lady  Hamilton  that  "he  had  dined 
with  him,  and  that  he  was  in  good  health,"  that 
he  did  not  think  a  short  stay  would  do  his  health 
harm,  and  that  he  would  not  urge  it,  were  it 
not  that  he  and  Troubridge  wished  him  to  have 
the  honour  of  the  French  ships'  and  the  French 
garrison's  surrendering  to  him.  Nelson's  vision  and 
good  judgment  at  this  time  must  have  been  totally 
at  fault,  and  his  general  attitude  emphasizes  the 
splendid  forbearance  of  his  amiable  commander- 
in-chief  and  distinguished  subordinates  who  were 
the  very  cream  of  the  Navy.  I  wonder  what 
would  have  happened  to  any  of  the  other  brilliant 
commanders  in  the  Royal  Navy  if  any  of  them  had, 


154      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

like  Nelson,  refused  to  obey  the  orders  of  the 
commander-in-chief  and  left  his  post  off  Malta, 
which  was  being  closely  besieged  and  the  garrison 
daily  expected  to  capitulate!  Supposing  Nelson 
had  been  the  commander-in-chief  and  his  second 
in  command  had  acted  as  he  did  towards  Lord 
Keith,  there  would  have  been  wigs  on  the  green! 
The  insubordinate  officer  would  have  been  promptly 
court-martialled  and  hung  at  the  yardarm  like 
the  Neapolitan  admiral,  Francesco  Caraccioli, 
or  treated  like  the  Hon.  Admiral  John  Byng,  who 
was  tried  for  neglect  of  duty  in  an  engagement 
off  Minorca  in  1756,  and  condemned  for  commit- 
ting an  error  of  judgment  and  shot  aboard  the 
Monarch  at  Spithead  in  1757.  Nelson  was  a 
stern  disciplinarian,  who  could  never  brook  being 
under  discipline  himself.  Nor  was  he  ever  a  day 
without  a  grievance  of  one  kind  or  another.  It 
must  have  been  a  happy  deliverance  to  Keith 
when  he  heard  the  last  of  him  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean, for  his  mental  capacity  at  this  particular 
stage  of  his  history  was  quite  defective.  No  doubt 
Lady  Hamilton  and  the  Queen  jabbered  into  his 
ears  the  injustice  of  the  wrongs  imposed  upon  him. 
After  the  battle  of  Marengo  the  whole  of  north- 
ern Italy  was  given  up  to  the  French  by  a  con- 
vention signed  by  General  Milas.  The  British 
commander-in-chief  proceeded  to  Leghorn  with  the 
fugitives,  to  be  bored,  as  he  fretfully  declared, 
"by  Nelson  craving  permission  to  take  the  Queen 
to  Palermo,  and  the  prince  and  princesses  to  all 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  155 

parts  of  the  world. "  The  Queen  was  panic- 
stricken  at  the  French  successes,  and  besought 
him  to  allow  her  to  sail  in  the  Foudroyant;  but 
Keith  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  release  any 
of  his  ships  for  such  a  purpose,  notwithstanding 
Nelson's  supplications  and  her  flow  of  tears.  He 
told  Nelson  that  the  royal  lady  should  get  off  to 
Vienna  as  quickly  as  she  could  and  abandon  the 
idea  of  Palermo,  supplementing  his  refusal  to 
employ  the  Foudroyant  in  any  such  way.  He 
would  only  allow  a  frigate  to  escort  her  own  frigates 
to  Trieste.  Lady  Minto  wrote  to  her  sister  from 
Florence  that  Keith  told  the  Queen  that  "Lady 
Hamilton  had  had  command  of  the  fleet  long 
enough,"  and  then  she  adds:  "The  Queen  is  very 
ill  with  a  sort  of  convulsive  fit,  and  Nelson  is  stay- 
ing to  nurse  her,  and  does  not  intend  going  home 
until  he  has  escorted  her  back  to  Palermo.  His 
zeal  for  the  public  service,"  she  continues,  "seems 
entirely  lost  in  his  love  and  vanity,  and  they  all 
sit  and  flatter  each  other  all  day  long." 

Nelson,  steady  in  his  attachment  to  the  Queen, 
declared  that  he  would  see  her  through  and  then 
continue  his  journey  home  with  the  Hamiltons. 
They  all  left  Leghorn  together,  arrived  at  Florence 
safely,  were  taken  from  Ancona  to  Trieste  on 
two  Russian  frigates,  and  landed  at  Trieste.  The 
Queen  of  Sicily  accompanied  them  to  Vienna,  and 
Nelson  and  the  Hamiltons  continued  their  tri- 
umphant journey  through  Germany  to  Hamburg. 
His   association  with   the  Court  of  Naples  was 


156      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

now  at  an  end,  and  his  real  friends,  believing  that 
it  had  corrupted  and  sapped  his  better  nature, 
were  glad  of  it.  His  mind  at  this  time  was  filled 
with  delusions  about  his  future.  He  repeatedly 
declared  that  he  would  never  serve  again,  and 
from  a  mixture  of  motives  he  acquired  happiness 
in  the  belief  that  he  would  avenge  his  keenly  felt 
wrongs  by  achieving  oblivion.  The  idea  that 
fate  held  in  store  for  him  a  higher  and  a  sterner 
destiny  never  occurred  to  him,  and  he  little  real- 
ized that  he  would  soon  be  removed  from  a  sphere 
where  his  presence  would  be  no  longer  needed. 
He  was,  in  fact,  combating  the  very  destiny  he 
had  so  often  sought,  in  which  he  would  achieve 
immortal  glory. 

XI 

The  benighted  policy  of  keeping  in  power  a 
mawkish  Sicilian  Court,  saturated  with  the  incur- 
able vices  of  cowardice,  falsehood,  dishonesty,  and 
treachery,  failed ;  and  the  Government  of  the  day 
was  saddled  with  the  crime  of  squandering  human 
life,  wealth,  and  energy  without  receiving  any 
commensurate  return.  If  it  was  in  the  national 
interest  to  involve  the  country  in  war  with  France, 
it  could  have  been  carried  on  with  greater  credit 
and  effect  by  not  undertaking  the  hopeless  task 
of  bolstering  up  a  Court  and  a  people  that  were 
openly  described  by  our  own  people  who  were 
sent  to  fight  for  them  as  "odious  damned  cowards 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  I57 

and  villains. "  We  had  no  real  grounds  of  quarrel 
with  France  nor  with  her  rulers.  The  Revolu- 
tion was  their  affair,  and  was  no  concern  of  ours, 
except  in  so  far  as  it  might  harmfully  reflect  on 
us,  and  of  this  there  was  no  likelihood  if  we  left 
them  alone.  The  plea  of  taking  the  balance  of 
power  under  our  benevolent  care  was  a  sickly  ex- 
hibition of  statesmanship,  and  the  assumption  of 
electing  ourselves  guardians  of  the  rights  of  small 
nations  mere  cant.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  canker  of 
jealousy  and  hatred  on  the  part  of  the  reactionary 
forces  against  a  man,  a  principle,  and  a  people. 

Had  those  who  governed  this  country  then 
held  aloof  from  the  imbroglio  created  by  the 
French  Revolution,  observed  a  watchful,  concili- 
atory spirit  of  neutrality  towards  the  French 
Government,  and  allowed  the  Continental  Powers 
to  adjust  their  own  differences,  the  conditions  of 
human  existence  and  the  hurtful  administration 
of  autocratic  governments  would  have  been  re- 
constituted, and  the  world  would  have  been  the 
better  for  it;  instead  of  which  we  helped  to  impose 
on  Europe  twenty  years  of  slaughter  and  devasta- 
tion. Our  dismal,  plutocratic  rulers,  with  solemn 
enthusiasm,  plunged  England  with  all  her  power 
and  influence  on  the  side  of  Prussia  and  her  conti- 
nental allies,  and,  in  conjunction  with  the  Holy 
Alliance,  pledged  themselves  never  to  lay  down 
arms  until  France  was  mutilated  and  the  master 
mind  which  ruled  her  beaten  and  dethroned. 
Their  task  was  long,  costly,  and  gruesome.     What 


158      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

a  ghastly  legacy  those  aggressively  righteous  cham- 
pions of  international  rights  have  bequeathed 
to  the  world!  But  for  their  folly  and  frenzy  we 
should  not  be  engaged  in  a  European  war  today. 
Poor  Napoleon!  He  foreshadowed  and  used  his 
gigantic  genius  to  prevent  it;  now  the  recoil  has 
come.  There  are  always  more  flies  caught  by 
treacle  than  by  vinegar,  a  policy  quite  as  efficacious 
in  preventing  international  quarrels  as  it  is  in 
the  smaller  affairs  of  our  existence,  provided  the 
law  which  governs  the  fitness  of  things  is  well 
defined. 

Had  we  approached  Napoleon  in  a  friendly 
spirit  and  on  equal  terms,  without  haughty  con- 
descension, he  would  have  reciprocated  our  cor- 
diality and  put  proper  value  on  our  friendship. 
By  wisdom  and  tact  the  duration  of  Napoleon's 
wars  would  have  been  vastly  shortened,  and  both 
nations  would  have  been  saved  from  the  errors 
that  were  committed.  We  did  not  do  this,  and 
we  are  now  reaping  the  consequence.  It  is  hardly 
to  be  expected  that  if  hostility  be  shown  towards 
an  individual  or  a  nation  either  will  mildly  submit 
to  it.  Who  can  estimate  the  passionate  resent- 
ment of  an  emotional  people  at  Nelson's  constant 
declamatory  outbursts  against  the  French  national 
character,  and  the  effect  it  had  throughout  France  ? 

An  affront  to  a  nation,  even  though  it  is  made 
by  a  person  in  a  subordinate  position,  may  bring 
about  far-reaching  trouble.  Reverse  the  posi- 
tion of  the  traducer  of  a  prominent  man  or  his 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  159 

nation,  and  it  will  be  easy  to  arrive  at  a  correct 
conclusion  as  to  the  temper  that  would  be  aroused, 
say,  in  this  country.  We  know  that  during  a  war 
passions  are  let  loose  and  charges  made  by  the 
combatants  against  each  other  which  are  usually 
exaggerated,  but  one  thing  is  certain,  that  our 
soldiers  and  sailors  have  always  had  the  well- 
deserved  reputation  of  being  the  cleanest  fighters 
in  the  world.  There  have  never  been  finer  ex- 
amples of  this  than  during  the  present  war.  But 
in  justice  to  ourselves  and  to  the  French  during 
the  Napoleonic  wars,  I  think  it  was  grossly  im- 
politic to  engender  vindictiveness  by  unjustifiable 
acrimony.  Up  to  the  time  that  Nelson  left  the 
Mediterranean  for  England,  except  for  the  bril- 
liant successes  of  the  Nile  and  the  equally  brilliant 
capture  of  the  balance  of  the  French  Mediterra- 
nean fleet,  and  subsequently  the  capitulation  of 
Malta  on  the  5th  September,  1800,  our  share  in 
the  war  was  an  exhausting  and  fruitless  failure. 

The  responsibility  for  this  clearly  lies  at  the 
door  of  the  Government  that  planned  it,  and  in 
no  way  attaches  to  Nelson  and  his  coadjutors, 
whose  naval  and  also  shore  exploits  could  not  be 
excelled.  First,  it  was  a  blink-eyed  policy  that 
plunged  us  into  the  war  at  all;  and  secondly,  it 
was  the  height  of  human  folly  to  waste  our  re- 
sources in  the  erroneous  belief  that  the  highly 
trained  military  men  of  France  could  be  perma- 
nently subjugated  in  the  Mediterranean  by  the 
cowardly,  treacherous  villains  of  which  the  Roman 


160      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

States,  armies,  and  governments  were  composed. 
History  is  not  altogether  faithful  to  the  truth 
in  its  honeyed  records  of  the  ministerial  pashas 
who  tranquilly  increased  the  national  debt,  in- 
flicted unspeakable  horrors  on  the  population,  and 
smirched  our  dignity  by  entering  into  a  costly 
bond  of  brotherhood  with  an  inveterate  swarm 
of  hired  blood-sucking  weasels.  Such,  forsooth! 
was  the  mental  condition  of  the  wooden  souls  who 
managed  the  nation's  affairs,  that  they  allowed 
Nelson  to  add  another  blot  to  our  national  history 
escutcheon  by  taking  Ferdinand  Bourbon's  throne 
under  his  protection.  It  is  true  that  Ferdinand 
"did  not  wish  that  his  benefactor's  name  should 
alone  descend  with  honour  to  posterity,,,  or  that 
he  should  "  appear  ungrateful. "  So  the  Admiral 
was  handsomely  rewarded  by  being  presented  with 
the  Dukedom  of  Bronte  and  a  diamond-hilted 
sword  which  had  been  given  to  the  King  by  his 
father  when  he  became  Sicilian  King.  It  would 
be  nonsense  even  to  suspect  Nelson  of  accepting 
either  gifts  or  titles  as  a  bribe  to  sacrifice  any 
interest  that  was  British. 

Nelson's  devotion  to  the  Court  did  not  express 
itself  by  seeking  material  recompense  for  the  ser- 
vices bestowed  on  their  Sicilian  Majesties.  There 
were  various  reasons  for  his  elaborate  and  silly 
attentions.  First,  his  range  of  instructions  were 
wide  in  a  naval  sense;  second,  his  personal  attach- 
ment to  the  King  and  his  consort  (especially  his 
consort),  for  reasons  unnecessary  to  refer  to  again, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  161 

became  a  growing  fascination  and  a  ridiculous 
craze.  His  fanatical  expressions  of  dislike  to  the 
French  are  merely  a  Nelsonian  way  of  conveying 
to  the  world  that  the  existence  of  so  dangerous  a 
race  should  be  permissive  under  strictly  regulated 
conditions.  He  had  a  solemn  belief  in  his  own 
superiority  and  that  of  his  fellow-countrymen. 
All  the  rest  were  to  him  mere  human  scrap,  and 
his  collection  of  epithets  for  them  was  large  and 
varied.  His  Mogul  air  in  the  presence  of  aliens 
was  traditionally  seamanlike.  If  they  failed  to 
shudder  under  his  stern  look  and  gleaming  eyes, 
it  affected  him  with  displeasure  and  contempt. 
The  Neapolitans  were  fulsomely  accommodating, 
though  Nelson,  except  from  the  Court  party  and  a 
few  nobles,  does  not  appear  to  have  attached  much 
value  to  their  servile  tokens  of  appreciation.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  either  Nelson,  his  Government, 
or  his  country  was  in  any  way  rewarded  by  the 
sacrifices  made  ostensibly  in  the  interests  of  human 
rights.  Under  Ferdinand  Bourbon,  the  Neapolitan 
States  and  Sicily  had  no  settled  government.  He 
was  a  contemptible  poltroon,  whose  throne  was  sup- 
ported for  years  by  British  money,  men,  and  ships; 
and  even  with  our  strong  support,  he  was  alter- 
nately fleeing  to  Sicily  and  returning  again  under 
the  formidable  protection  of  British  frigates,  and, 
like  all  perfidious  cowards,  his  short  intervals  of 
government  were  distinguished  by  a  despotism  that 
soon  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  fly  from  the  feel- 
ings of  vengeance  he  had  called  out. 


1 62      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Not  even  the  power  of  Great  Britain  could 
prevent  the  kingdom  of  Naples  from  passing  from 
one  vicissitude  into  another.  The  French  took 
possession  of  it  in  January,  1799,  and  established 
what  they  called  the  Parthenopean  Republic. 
Nelson  helped  to  retake  it  in  June  of  the  same 
year,  and  put  the  itinerant  King  on  the  throne. 
The  Neapolitans  occupied  Rome  on  the  30th 
September,  1799.  In  October,  1805,  a  treaty  of 
neutrality  between  France  and  Naples  was  carried 
into  effect.  Ferdinand  fled  to  Sicily  again  on  the 
23d  January  of  the  next  year,  when  the  master 
mind  came  to  close  quarters  and  put  an  end,  as  I 
have  previously  stated,  to  Ferdinand's  kingship 
and  tyrannical  rule  by  placing  his  brother  Joseph 
on  the  throne;  two  years  later  Joseph  became 
King  of  Spain,  and  his  brother-in-law,  Joachim 
Murat,  succeeded  him  as  ruler  of  Naples.  The 
Neapolitans  were  never  better  governed  than 
during  the  reign  of  these  two  kings.  Many  wise 
laws  were  made  and  enforced  by  a  just  and  rigid 
discipline.  Incompetent,  weak  despotism  had  dis- 
appeared, and  any  attempt  at  licence  was  promptly 
subdued.  The  people  were  put  through  a  course 
of  transforming  education,  and  gradually  became 
law-abiding  citizens.  Even  then,  methods  of 
carrying  on  commerce  took  a  marked  change  for 
the  better,  and  predatory  habits  were  relaxed 
into  comparative  honesty,  not,  it  may  be  sup- 
posed, from  virtue,  but  from  fear  of  the  inevitable, 
harsh   consequences.     The   public,    in    a   general 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  163 

way,  quickly  distinguish  between  a  strong,  capable 
ruler  and  a  weak,  incompetent  one;  and  no  matter 
how  indulgent  the  latter  may  be,  they  prefer  the 
strong  wholesome-minded  man  to  the  mediocrity. 

Ferdinand  had  none  of  the  qualities  that  are 
essential  to  a  man  occupying  a  position  of  author- 
ity. When  the  French  came  to  take  over  the 
government  of  Naples,  he  flew,  as  usual,  to  Sicily, 
and  under  the  continuous  protection  of  British 
men-of-war  was  with  great  difficulty  kept  reigning 
there  until  the  end  of  the  war,  when  he  was  again 
put  on  the  throne  of  Naples  in  181 5,  and  forthwith 
commenced  again  his  rule  of  incompetency  and 
despotism,  reversing  the  beneficent  rule  of  his  two 
able  predecessors.  The  old  reprobate  died  on  the 
4th  January,  1825,  having  reigned  off  and  on  for 
sixty-five  years,  largely  owing  to  the  indulgent 
and  costly  support  of  the  British  Government. 

Caroline  died  on  the  7th  September,  18 14,  and 
to  her  abiding  credit  she  condemned  the  action 
of  the  Court  of  Vienna  for  severing  the  bond  of 
union  between  the  Emperor  Napoleon  and  her 
granddaughter,  Marie  Louise.  She  declared  ve- 
hemently that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  latter  to 
break  the  prohibition  by  assuming  disguise,  tying 
her  bed  sheets  together,  lowering  herself  out  of 
the  window,  and  making  her  way  quickly,  in  face 
of  all  obstacles,  to  where  her  husband  was.  Marie 
Louise  was  not  a  lady  of  unyielding  morals,  and 
at  that  particular  time  her  Hapsburg,  licentious 
mind  was  not  centred  on  the  misfortunes  of  her 


1 64      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

husband,  but  on  Neipperg,  who  was  employed  to 
seduce  her.  Caroline  told  Baron  Claude  Francois 
de  Meneval,  Napoleon's  private  secretary,  that 
she  had  reason  at  one  time  to  dislike  the  Emperor, 
but  now  that  adversity  had  come  to  him,  she  forgot 
the  past. 

Had  this  same  spirit  of  Tightness  and  wisdom 
been  adopted  by  Marie  Louise's  father  and  his 
allies,  as  was  so  nobly  advocated  by  the  sister  of 
Marie  Antoinette,  there  would  have  been  a  clean 
sheet  in  history  about  them,  though  it  is  obvious 
in  many  quarters  that  the  historians  have  ex- 
tended all  the  arts  of  ambiguity  and  delusion  to 
make  them  appear  flawless  benefactors.  There- 
fore one  has  to  take  all  the  circumstances  handed 
down  from  many  varied  sources,  reliable  and  un- 
reliable, and  after  mature  thought  form  conclu- 
sions as  one's  judgment  may  direct  as  to  the 
merits  and  demerits  of  every  phase  that  is 
recorded.  Hence  exhaustive  research  and  long- 
reasoned  views  lead  me  definitely  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  there  is  not  much  that  we  can  put  to 
the  credit  of  either  their  wisdom  or  humanity. 
My  plain  opinion  is  that  they  acted  ferociously, 
and  although  always  in  the  name  of  the  Son  of 
God,  that  can  never  absolve  them  from  the  dark 
deeds  that  stand  to  their  names.  Nor  is  it  alto- 
gether improbable  that  all  the  nations  that  were 
concerned  in  the  dreadful  assassination  are  now 
paying  the  natural  penalty  of  their  guilt.  Natural 
laws  have  a  curious  roundabout  way  of  paying 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  165 

back  old  scores,  though  the  tragic  retribution  has 
to  be  borne  more  often  than  not  by  the  innocent 
descendants  of  those  who  have,  in  the  name  of 
the  Deity,  violated  them. 

The  Duke  of  Thunder  was  proud  of  the  Sicilian 
meaning  of  his  title,  and  so  were  his  sailors,  who 
loved  the  thrilling  effect  of  anything  that  conveyed 
the  idea  of  being  associated  with  a  formidable 
power  that  devastated  every  other  force  that 
stood  in  its  way.  For  the  most  part,  Nelson's 
sailors  had  great  faith  in  his  naval  genius.  He 
had  led  them  many  times  to  victory,  and  they  did 
not  forget  the  glory  that  attached  to  themselves. 
He  planned  the  strategy,  but  it  was  they  that 
fought  and  won  the  battles.  The  Duke  of  Thun- 
der was  a  fine  title  to  fight  under.  A  name  has 
frequently  done  more  damage  to  a  foe  than  glit- 
tering bayonets.  But  Nelson  in  no  degree  had 
the  thunder  element  in  him,  so  far  as  we  are  able 
to  judge  by  the  descriptions  given  to  us  of  him. 
He  was  a  dashing,  courageous,  scientific  genius, 
gifted  with  natural  instincts,  disciplinary  wisdom, 
deplorable  sentimentality,  and  an  artificial,  re- 
vengeful spirit  of  hatred  that  probably  became 
real  under  the  arbitrary  circumstances  of  war, 
but,  I  should  say,  was  rarely  prominent.  His 
roaming  attacks  on  the  French  were  probably 
used  more  for  effect,  and  had,  we  hope,  only  a 
superficial  meaning.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  it 
detracts  from  the  dignity  of  an  officer  occupying, 
as  he  did,  a  distinguished  position  to  use  language 


1 66      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

and  phrases  such  as  are  common  in  the  forecastle 
or  on  the  quarterdeck  of  a  sailing  merchantman 
in  the  early  days  before  the  introduction  of  steam- 
ers. Here  are  a  few  quite  amusing  outbursts 
which  do  not  produce  the  impression  of  coming 
from  a  person  known  to  fame  as  the  Duke  of 
Thunder:  On  the  ist  October,  1801,  the  prelim- 
inaries of  peace  with  France  were  signed.  When 
Nelson  heard  of  it  he  thanked  God,  and  went  on 
to  say,  "We  lay  down  our  arms,  and  are  ready  to 
take  them  up  again  if  the  French  are  insolent." 
He  declares  there  is  no  one  in  the  world  more  de- 
sirous of  peace  than  he  is,  but  that  he  would 
"burst  sooner  than  let  any  damned  Frenchman 
know  it."  But  it  was  too  much  for  his  anti- 
French  sentiments  when  he  heard  that  their  Am- 
bassador's carriage  had  been  dragged  by  the 
London  mob.  He  wrote  to  his  medical  man,  and 
asked  if  he  could  cure  madness,  for  he  had  gone 
mad  to  learn  "that  our  damned  scoundrels  dragged 
a  Frenchman's  carriage."  And  he  hoped  never- 
more to  be  dragged  by  such  a  degenerate  crowd; 
which  was  exhibiting  in  a  characteristic  way  his 
high  opinion  of  himself.  "Would  our  ancestors 
have  done  it?"  he  asks,  and  then  continues:  "The 
villains  would  have  drawn  Buonaparte  if  he  had 
been  able  to  get  to  London  to  cut  the  king's 
head  off."  The  writer  has  a  definite  opinion 
that  Bonaparte  would  have  had  a  boisterous 
reception,  and  that  it  might  have  cemented  a 
friendship  that  would  have  been  a  blessing  to 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  167 

the  tired  world,  and  especially  to  the  two  warring 
nations. 

The  ruler  of  the  French  nation,  in  spite  of 
Nelson's  views,  would  have  made  a  better  ally 
than  enemy.  But  it  often  happens  that  nations, 
as  well  as  individuals,  lose  their  psychological 
opportunity.  And  we  will  risk  a  belief  that  if 
Nelson  and  Bonaparte  met  they  would  have  found 
an  affinity  between  them  that  would  have  made 
the  two  men  friends.  Southey  says  that  the  title 
"Duke  of  Thunder''  is  especially  applicable  to 
Nelson,  but  the  writer  has  failed  to  find  anything 
to  warrant  such  an  opinion. 

Nelson's  professional  pride  was  for  ever  being 
needlessly  hurt  by  Admiralty  tactlessness.  He 
had  good  reason  on  many  occasions  to  take  offence 
at  their  clumsiness.  One  of  numerous  grievances 
was  Sir  Sydney  Smith's  being,  to  all  appearances, 
put  over  him.  He  wrote  to  Lord  St.  Vincent, 
and  reminded  him  that  he  was  a  man,  and  that 
it  was  impossible  for  him  to  serve  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean under  a  junior  officer.  St.  Vincent  pre- 
vailed on  him  not  to  resign,  but  Sir  Sydney  Smith 
wished  to  carry  out  a  policy  towards  the  French 
in  Egypt  which  Nelson  hotly  disapproved,  and  he 
commands  him  on  no  account  to  permit  a  single 
Frenchman  to  leave  the  country.  He  considered 
it  would  be  madness  to  permit  a  band  of  thieves 
to  return  to  Europe.  "To  Egypt,"  he  says,  "they 
went  of  their  own  accord,  and  they  shall  remain 
there  while  I   command   the    squadron.      Never 


1 68      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

will  I  consent  to  the  return  of  one  ship  or  French- 
man. I  wish  them  to  perish  in  Egypt,  and  give 
an  awful  lesson  to  the  world  of  the  justice  of  the 
Almighty."  It  will  be  observed  how  characteristic- 
ally sailorly  he  is  in  his  leanings  on  Divine  mono- 
poly in  punishing  the  "bloody  Corsican',  for  his 
wickedness  in  waging  war  against  Britain.  His 
profound  belief  was  that  the  Almighty  presided 
over  our  destinies  then,  just  as  the  German  Kaiser 
claims  that  He  is  presiding  over  his  national  affairs 
now;  and,  as  I  have  pointed  out  before,  each  of 
the  belligerents  calls  upon  Him  in  beseeching 
reverence  as  a  Divine  compatriot,  to  give  this 
Almighty  power  to  aid  in  demolishing  their  com- 
mon foe,  who  has  broken  every  law  of  God  and 
man.  This  form  of  blasphemy  is  as  rampant  now 
as  it  ever  was.  It  is  not  a  hungry  belief  in  God 
that  gives  the  initial  impulse  for  human  slaughter. 
It  is  a  craving  lust  for  the  invention  of  all  that  is 
devilish  in  expeditiously  disposing  of  human  life. 

The  international  democracies  that  are  devoting 
so  much  attention  to  political  ascendancy  should 
distribute  their  power  in  a  way  that  would  make 
it  impossible  for  weak  governments,  composed  of 
mediocrities  and  bellicose  rulers  of  nations,  to 
make  war  whenever  their  impertinent  ambitions 
are  impressed  with  the  sanguinary  rage  of  conflict. 

All  wars  mutilate  civilization,  and  put  back 
by  many  generations  any  advance  that  may  have 
been  made  in  the  interval  between  one  butchery 
and  another.     The  working-people  of  all  nations 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  169 

could  and  should  combine  to  stop  the  manufacture 
of  every  implement  of  warfare,  and  make  it  a 
treasonable  offence  for  any  ruler  or  government 
again  to  advocate  war  as  a  means  of  settling  dis- 
putes. This  law  must  of  necessity  be  binding 
upon  all  the  Powers,  big  and  little.  What  a  mock- 
ery this  gospel  of  brotherhood  has  been  in  all  ages ! 
Is  it  an  ideal  ambition  to  bring  it  about?  Of 
course  it  is,  but  we  cannot  catch  the  spirit  of 
Christ  and  preach  the  gospel  of  pity,  and  commit 
hideous  murder  at  one  and  the  same  time!  hence 
the  impudence  of  expecting  a  Divine  benediction 
on  warfare. 

All  sorts  of  public  and  private  honours  and 
testimonials  were  conferred  upon  Nelson  during 
his  stay  at  Hamburg  on  his  way  home  after  the 
mortifications  caused  by  the  elusive  French  fleet, 
Calabrian  brigands,  and  the  alluring  attractions 
of  the  Court  of  Naples  and  Sicily.  One  hundred 
grenadiers,  each  six  feet  high,  waited  at  table 
when  he  was  being  banqueted.  The  owner  of  a 
Magdeburg  hotel  where  he  stayed  made  money 
by  setting  up  a  ladder  outside  Nelson's  sitting- 
room  and  charging  a  fee  for  mounting  it  and  peep- 
ing at  the  hero  inside  the  room.  An  aged  wine 
merchant  at  Hamburg  offered  him  through  Lady 
Hamilton  six  dozen  bottles  of  Rhenish  wine  of 
the  vintage  of  1625.  It  had  been  in  his  own 
possession  for  fifty  years,  and  he  hoped  that  some 
of  it  would  be  allowed  to  flow  with  the  blood  of 
the  immortal  hero,  as  it  would  then    make  the 


170      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

giver  happy.  Nelson  shook  hands  with  the  old 
man,  and  consented  to  receive  six  bottles,  provided 
he  would  dine  with  him  next  day.  A  dozen  were 
sent,  and  Nelson  put  aside  six,  saying  that  it  was 
his  hope  to  win  half  a  dozen  more  victories,  and 
that  one  bottle  would  be  drunk  after  each. 

Another  aged  man,  whose  ideals  were  of  a  differ- 
ent and  higher  order,  came  along.  He  was  a 
German  pastor  who,  at  eighty  years  of  age  or 
thereabouts,  had  travelled  forty  miles  with  the 
object  of  getting  Nelson  to  write  his  immortal 
name  in  his  Bible.  The  venerable  Lutheran  pre- 
late, with  a  grateful  heart,  asked  to  be  allowed 
to  record  his  blessing  and  admiration  for  the 
gallant  British  Admiral  by  stating  to  him,  amongst 
other  modestly  selected  phrases,  that  "he  was  the 
Saviour  of  the  Christian  world/'  The  pastor's 
fervent  testimony  of  his  work  and  his  mission 
touched  Nelson  on  a  tender  spot.  In  his  rough- 
and-ready  way,  he  believed  in  the  efficacy  of 
prayer,  and  he  knew  when  the  old  man,  bowed 
down  by  age,  parted  from  him  that  he  would  be 
steadfast  in  his  petitions  to  the  Giver  of  all  mercies 
that  he  should  be  held  in  His  holy  keeping,  body 
and  soul.  The  story  is  an  example  of  fine  healthy 
devotion,  free  from  sickly  cant,  though  the  logic 
of  successfully  squandering  rich  lives  or  even 
bravely  sacrificing  your  own  (as  every  commander 
risks  doing)  is  a  mysterious  reason  for  the  person 
who  is  successful  in  casting  away  human  lives — 
even  though  they  be  those  of  an  enemy — having 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  171 

the  title  of  "the  Saviour  of  the  world"  conferred 
upon  him! 

The  writer's  idea  of  how  to  establish  and  ad- 
vance the  Christian  faith  is  to  keep  out  of  war, 
and  the  best  method  of  doing  this  is  for  the  elec- 
torate to  choose  men  to  govern  who  are  highly 
gifted  with  diplomatic  genius.  Nearly  all  wars 
are  brought  about  through  incompetent  nego- 
tiators, and  the  wastage  of  life  and  property  in 
carrying  on  a  war  is  certainly  to  be  attributed  to 
men  who  are  at  the  head  of  affairs  being  mere 
politicians,  without  any  faculty  whatever  for 
carrying  out  great  undertakings.  They  are  simply 
mischievous  shadows,  and  excel  merely  as  in- 
triguers in  putting  good  men  out  of  office  and 
themselves  in.  It  is  the  selection  of  men  for  the 
posts  they  are  eminently  suited  to  fill  that  counts 
in  any  department  of  life,  but  it  is  more  mani- 
festly important  in  affairs  of  government.  For 
instance,  nothing  but  disaster  can  follow  if  a  man 
is  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  who  has  no 
instinct  for  national  finance,  and  the  same  thing  ap- 
plies to  a  Foreign  Secretary  who  has  no  knowledge 
of  or  natural  instinct  for  international  diplomacy. 
At  the  same  time,  an  adroit  commercial  expert 
may  De  utterly  useless  in  dealing  with  matters  of 
State  that  are  affected  by  trade.  The  two  positions 
are  wide  apart,  and  are  a  business  in  themselves. 
The  writer's  view  is  that  to  fill  any  department 
of  State  satisfactorily  the  head  should  have  both 
political  and  commercial  training,  combined  with 


172      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

wholesome  instinct.  I  don't  say  that  trade  is 
altogether  affected  by  the  kind  of  government 
that  is  in  power,  but  bad  trade  and  bad  govern- 
ment combined  make  a  terrific  burden  for  any 
nation  to  carry. 

Service  men,  in  the  main,  measure  and  think 
always  from  a  military  or  naval  point  of  view. 
Some  of  them  have  quite  a  genius  for  organizing 
in  matters  concerning  their  own  profession.  Take 
the  late  Lord  Kitchener.  In  army  matters  he 
was  unequalled  as  an  organizer  but  abominably 
traduced.  Then  there  is  Lord  Fisher,  who  easily 
heads  everybody  connected  with  the  Navy,  as  a 
great  admiral  who  can  never  be  deprived  of  the 
merit  of  being  the  creator  of  our  modern  fleet. 
He  combines  with  a  matchless  genius  for  control 
a  fine  organizing  brain.  The  politician,  with  his 
amateurish  antics,  deprived  the  British  Empire 
of  the  services  of  an  outstanding  figure  that  would 
have  saved  us  many  lives  and  many  ships,  without 
taking  into  account  the  vast  quantity  of  merchan- 
dise and  foodstuffs  that  has  perished.  It  is  not 
by  creating  confusion  that  the  best  interest  of  the 
nation  is  served,  either  in  peace-time  or  during 
war.  Those  robust  rhetoricians  who  massacre 
level-headed  government  and  substitute  a  system 
of  makeshift  experiments  during  a  great  national 
crisis  do  a  wicked  public  disservice.  I  have  no 
time  to  deal  with  these  superior  persons  in  detail, 
but  I  cannot  keep  my  thoughts  from  the  terrible 
bitterness  and  anguish  their  haphazard  experiments 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  *73 

may  have  caused.  The  destroying  force  will  eat 
into  the  very  entrails  of  our  national  life  if  some 
powerful  resolute  personality  does  not  arise  to 
put  an  end  to  the  hopeless  extemporizing  and 
contempt  for  sober,  solid,  orderly  administration. 
The  truth  is  that,  if  a  government  or  anything 
else  is  wrongly  conceived,  natural  laws  will  never 
help  it  to  right  itself,  and  it  ends  in  catastrophe. 
Such  governments  are  inflicted  on  us  from  time 
to  time  as  a  chastisement,  it  is  said,  for  our  na- 
tional sins,  and  the  process  of  disintegration  is 
deadly  in  its  effects.  The  only  consoling  feat- 
ure of  it  is  that  history  is  repeating  itself 
with  strange  accuracy,  as  may  be  verified  by  a 
glance  into  the  manuscripts  of  Mr.  Fortescue  at. 
Dropmore.  Herein  you  will  find  many  striking 
resemblances  between  the  constitution  of  the  gov- 
ernment then  and  the  tribulation  we  are  passing 
through  at  the  present  time.  One  important 
event  of  that  period  has  been  avoided  up  to  the 
present;  none  has  demanded  a  settlement  of  his 
differences  by  means  of  a  duelling  contest,  as  did 
Castlereagh  and  Canning.1    They  had  a  coalition 

1  Castlereagh  and  Canning  fought  a  duel.  Canning  was  wounded 
by  a  bullet  in  the  leg,  and  it  prevented  Castlereagh  from  being  an 
unpopular  figure.  Indeed,  he  became,  for  a  time,  in  limited  circles, 
popular.  Percival  was  assassinated.  Lord  Liverpool  was  Prime 
Minister  for  fifteen  years,  and  departed  this  life  insane.  Canning  was 
brilliant,  witty,  and  eloquent,  and  his  outlook  was  large.  It  was  said 
that  he  was  spoiled  by  Pitt,  and  was  consumed  by  vanity,  and  was 
broken  by  Tory  calumniation.  Political,  commercial,  or  social  intrigue 
success  is  always  followed  by  the  most  deadly  reaction  on  those  who 
practise  or  encourage  it,  and  I  trust  that  a  merciful  Providence  will 


174      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

of  all  the  talents  then  as  they  presume  to  have 
now,  though  there  has  been  no  real  evidence  of 
it,  either  in  or  out  of  Parliament. 


XII 

Poor  Nelson  had  a  terrible  time  with  one  and 
another  of  them,  as  they  had  with  him,  if  history 
may  be  relied  on.  His  periodical  defiances  and 
his  contempt  for  his  superiors  is  quite  edifying. 
He  laid  down  the  law  like  a  bishop  when  his  moods 
were  in  full  play.  The  great  naval,  commercial, 
and  military  figure  to  which  Nelson  comes  nearest 
is  Drake,  and  the  nearest  to  Nelson  in  versatility 
is  Lord  Fisher,  who  must  have  had  an  engaging 
time  with  those  who  wished  to  assume  control 
of  the  Navy  over  his  level  head.  I  question 
whether  any  man  holding  a  high  position  in  the 
British  Navy,  at  any  time,  could  combine  naval, 
military,  and  administrative  genius,  together  with 
sound  common  sense,  as  Nelson  did.  We  have 
devoted  so  much  attention  to  the  study  of  his 
naval  accomplishments  that  many  of  his  other 
practical  gifts  have  been  overlooked.  It  is  com- 
mon belief,  in  civilian  circles  at  any  rate,  and 
there  is  good  ground  for  it,  that  both  the  naval 
and  military  men  do  not  realize  how  much  their 

shield  from  the  tragedies  and  maladies  that  came  to  some  members 
of  this  former  coalition  those  of  the  present,  which  apparently  excels 
every  other  in  its  colossal  efforts  at  doing  harm.  The  best  brain, 
are  needed  now,  not  romancers. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  175 

existence  depends  on  a  well-handled  and  judi- 
ciously treated  mercantile  marine.  I  have  too  much 
regard  for  every  phase  of  seafaring  life  to  criticize 
it  unfairly,  but,  except  on  very  rare  occasions,  I 
have  found  naval  and  military  men  so  profoundly 
absorbed  in  their  own  professions  that  they  do  not 
trouble  to  regard  anything  else  as  being  essential. 
The  present  war  will  have  revealed  many  things 
that  were  not  thought  of  in  other  days.  One  of 
Nelson's  outstanding  anxieties  was  lest  any  harm 
should  befall  our  commerce,  and  he  protected  it 
and  our  shipping  with  fine  vigilance  and  with 
scant  support  from  the  then  Government,  which 
would  not  supply  him  with  ships;  this  at  times 
drove  him  to  expressions  of  despair.  Privateer- 
ing was  more  rampant  then  than  it  is  now,  and 
the  belligerents  had  great  difficulty  in  enforcing 
neutrals  to  observe  neutrality.  Indeed,  the  cir- 
cumstances were  such  that  it  became  impossible 
to  prevent  leakage.  The  British  Admiral  was 
continually  protesting  to  the  neutrals  against  the 
system  of  smuggling  and  privateering,  but  it  was 
hardly  consistent,  seeing  that  we  were  obliged  to 
make  breaches  of  neutrality  in  order  to  get  our 
supplies.  Small  privateers,  consisting  sometimes 
of  mere  longboats,  infested  every  swatch  and 
corner  they  could  get  into  on  the  Spanish  shores, 
the  Ionian  Islands,  the  Barbary  coast,  the  Balearic 
Islands,  and  Sicily.  We  indicted  France  for  en- 
forcing subsidies  from  Spain,  compelling  the  Nea- 
politans  to   provide   for   her   soldiers   occupying 


176      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Neapolitan  territory.  We,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
obliged  to  make  use  of  neutral  ports  for  supplies 
required  for  the  Gulf  of  Lyons  fleet.  It  was  a 
curious  position,  and  both  France  and  England 
were  parties  to  the  anomaly,  and  each  accused 
the  other  of  the  impiety  of  it.  The  British  Ad- 
miral and  his  officers  never  lost  an  opportunity 
of  destroying  the  marauders  when  caught  within 
neutral  limits,  and  Nelson  never  flinched  from 
supporting  his  officers  in  the  matter.  "The  pro- 
tection/* he  writes,  "given  to  the  enemies*  priva- 
teers and  rowboats  is  extremely  destructive  of  our 
commerce,"  and  then  he  goes  on  to  give  reasons 
why  these  vermin  should  be  shot  or  captured. 

He  was  driven  frantic  by  the  demands  made 
for  convoys  by  captains  and  merchants,  and  his 
appeals  to  the  Admiralty  for  more  cruisers  were 
unheeded.  He  expresses  himself  strongly  averse 
to  allowing  even  fast  sailing  vessels  to  make  a 
passage  unprotected.  Perhaps  no  human  mind 
that  has  been  given  grave  responsibilities  to  safe- 
guard was  ever  lacerated  as  was  Nelson's  in  seeing 
that  our  commercial  interests  did  not  suffer,  and 
that  on  the  seas  he  guarded  a  free  and  safe  passage 
should  be  assured  to  our  shipping  carrying  food 
and  other  merchandise  to  the  mother  country. 
The  responsibility  of  carrying  out  even  this  special 
work  in  a  satisfactory  way  was  an  amazing  task, 
and  no  evidence  is  on  record  that  he  left  anything 
to  chance.  Results  are  an  eloquent  answer  to 
any  doubts  on  that  subject.     In  addition  to  polic- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  177 

ing  the  seas,  he  had  the  anxiety  of  watching  the 
tricky  manoeuvres  of  the  French  fleet,  and  plan- 
ning for  their  interception  and  defeat  should  they 
weaken  in  their  elusive  methods.  Of  course, 
they  were  playing  their  own  game,  and  had  a 
right  to,  and  it  was  for  their  opponents,  whom 
Nelson  so  well  represented,  to  outwit  and  trap 
them  into  fighting;  but  as  for  having  any  grounds 
for  complaint,  it  was  not  only  silly,  but  inoppor- 
tune, to  give  expression  to  having  a  grievance 
against  the  French  admirals  because  they  cutely 
slipped  out  of  his  deadly  grasp  from  time  to  time 
and  made  him  weary  of  life !  His  grievances  were 
easier  to  establish  against  the  Board  of  Admiralty, 
who  were  alternately  paying  him  compliments 
and  insulting  him.  Instructions  were  given  that 
could  not  be  obeyed  without  involving  the  country 
in  certain  loss  and  complication.  Officers,  his 
junior  in  rank,  were  given  appointments  that 
had  the  appearance  of  placing  them  independent 
of  his  authority.  Seniors  of  inferior  capacity 
were  given  control  over  him  which,  but  for  his 
whimsical  magnanimity,  might  have  cost  us  the 
loss  of  the  fleet,  their  crews,  and  our  high  honour 
and  superb  fighting  reputation.  Take  for  example 
Sir  Hyde  Parker's  command  of  the  Baltic  fleet, 
or  Sir  John  Orde's  clumsy  appointment  to  a  squad- 
ron in  the  Mediterranean.  Nothing  could  be  so 
harassing  to  the  nerves  of  a  man  sure  of  his  own 
superiority  as  to  be  burdened,  not  only  with  Orde's 
arrogance,  but  his  mediocrity.     He  was  obliged 


178      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

to  resort  to  subterfuge  in  order  to  get  his  dis- 
patches sent  home,  and  here  again  the  action  of 
the  Admiralty  compelled  him  to  break  naval 
discipline  by  ordering  a  nephew  of  Lord  St.  Vin- 
cent, a  clever  young  captain  of  a  frigate,  to  whom 
he  was  devoted,  to  take  the  dispatches  to  Lisbon. 
He  told  the  young  captain  that  Sir  John  Orde 
took  his  frigates  from  him,  and  sent  them  away  in 
a  direction  contrary  to  his  wishes.  "I  cannot  get 
my  dispatches  even  sent  home,"  he  said,  adding, 
"You  must  try  to  avoid  his  ships."  Nelson  had 
not  signed  his  orders,  because  Sir  John  Orde  was 
his  superior  officer,  but  should  it  come  to  a  court- 
martial,  Hardy  could  swear  to  his  handwriting, 
and  he  gave  him  the  assurance  that  he  would  not 
be  broken.  "Take  your  orders,  and  good-bye," 
said  he,  "and  remember,  Parker,  if  you  cannot 
weather  that  fellow,  I  shall  think  you  have  not 
a  drop  of  your  uncle's  blood  in  your  veins."  Other 
Nelsonian  instructions  were  given,  and  the  gallant 
captain  carried  them  out  with  a  skill  worthy  of 
his  ingenious,  defiant  chief  and  of  his  distinguished 
uncle. 

It  was  not  only  a  slap  in  the  face  to  Sir  John 
Orde,  but  to  those  whose  patronage  had  placed 
in  a  senior  position  a  man  who  was  not  qualified 
to  stand  on  the  same  quarterdeck  with  Nelson. 
He  smarted  under  the  treatment,  but  unhappily 
could  not  keep  his  chagrin  under  cover.  He  was 
always  pouring  his  soul  out  to  someone  or  other. 
His  health  is  always  falling  to  pieces  after  each 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  *79 

affront,  and  for  this  reason  he  asks  to  be  relieved. 
Here  is  an  example  of  his  moods.  "I  am  much 
obliged  to  your  Lordships'  compliance  with  my 
requests,"  he  says,  "which  is  absolutely  necessary 
from  the  present  state  of  my  health/'  and  almost 
immediately  after  he  tells  a  friend  he  "will  never 
quit  his  post  when  the  French  fleet  are  at  sea  as  a 
commander-in-chief  once  did."  "  I  would  sooner 
die  at  my  post  than  have  such  a  stigma  upon  my 
memory."  This  is  a  nasty  dig  at  Lord  St.  Vincent, 
presumably  for  having  a  hand  in  the  appointment 
of  Sir  John  Orde.  Then  he  writes  to  Elliot  that 
nothing  has  kept  him  at  his  post  but  the  fear  of 
the  French  fleet  escaping  and  getting  to  Naples 
or  Sicily.  "Nothing  but  gratitude  for  the  good 
sovereigns  would  have  induced  him  to  stay  a 
moment  after  Sir  John  Orde's  extraordinary  com- 
mand, for  his  general  conduct  towards  them  is 
not  such  as  he  had  a  right  to  expect."  I  have 
heard  that  snobbishness  prevails  in  the  service 
now  only  in  a  less  triumphant  degree  than  it 
did  in  Nelson's  time.  If  that  be  the  case,  it  ought 
to  be  wrestled  with  until  every  vestige  of  the  ugly 
thing  is  strangled.  The  letters  of  Nelson  to  per- 
sonal friends,  to  the  Admiralty,  and  in  his  reported 
conversations,  are  all  full  of  resentment  at  the 
viciousness  of  it,  though  he  obviously  struggles 
to  curb  the  vehemence  of  his  feelings.  No  one 
felt  the  dagger  of  the  reticent  stabber  more  quickly 
and  sensitively  than  he.  Invisible  though  the 
libeller  might  be,  Nelson  knew  he  was  there.     He 


180      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

could  not  hear  the  voice,  but  he  felt  the  sinister 
action. 

Making  full  allowance  for  what  might  be  put 
down  to  imagination,  there  is  still  an  abundance  of 
material  to  justify  the  belief  that  the  first  naval 
authority  of  his  time  was  the  target  of  snobs,  and 
that,  but  for  his  strong  personality  and  the  fact 
that  he  was  always  ready  to  fight  them  in  the 
open,  he  would  have  been  superseded,  and  a  gallant 
duffer  might  have  taken  his  place,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  our  imperial  interests.  It  is  a  dangerous 
experiment  to  put  a  man  into  high  office  if  he 
has  not  the  instinct  of  judging  the  calibre  of 
other  men.  This  applies  to  every  department  of 
life  nowadays.  Take  the  Army,  the  Navy,  de- 
partments of  State,  commercial  or  banking  offices, 
manufacturing  firms,  and  the  making  of  political 
appointments.  The  last-named  is  more  carelessly 
dealt  with  than  any  other  department  of  life.  The 
public  are  not  sufficiently  vigilant  in  distinguish- 
ing between  a  mere  entertaining  rhetorician  and 
a  wholesome-minded,  natural-born  statesman. 
What  terrible  calamities  have  come  to  the  State 
through  putting  men  into  responsible  positions 
they  have  neither  training,  wit,  nor  wisdom  to  fill 
efficiently!  Providence  has  been  most  indulgent 
and  forbearing  when  we  have  got  ourselves  into 
a  mess  by  wrong-headedness.  There  generally 
arises  to  our  aid  an  undiscovered  man  or  a  few  men 
with  the  necessary  gifts  required  for  getting  us 
out  of  the  difficulty  in  which  the  Yellow  Press 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  181 

gang  and  their  accomplices  may  have  involved 
the  country.  We  know  something  of  how  the 
knowledge  of  these  anomalies  in  public  life  chafed 
the  eager  spirit  of  Nelson,  but  we  can  never  know 
the  extent  of  the  suffering  it  caused  except  dur- 
ing the  Neapolitan  and  Sicilian  days.  This  lonely 
soul  lived  the  life  of  a  recluse  for  months  at  a  time. 
The  monotony  of  the  weird  song  of  the  sea  winds, 
the  nerve-tearing,  lazy  creak  of  the  wooden  tim- 
bers, the  sinuous  crawling,  rolling,  or  plunging 
over  the  most  wondrous  of  God's  works,  invari- 
ably produces  a  sepulchral  impression  even  on  the 
most  phlegmatic  mind,  but  to  the  mystically 
constituted  brain  of  Nelson,  under  all  the  varied 
thoughts  that  came  into  his  brain  during  the  days 
and  nights  of  watching  and  searching  for  those 
people  he  termed  "the  pests  of  the  human  race," 
it  must  have  been  one  long  heartache.  No  won- 
der that  he  lets  fly  at  the  Admiralty  in  some  of 
his  most  passionate  love-messages  to  the  seductive 
Emma.  His  dreary  life,  without  any  exciting 
incident  except  the  carrying  away  of  sails  or  spars, 
and  the  irritation  of  not  being  able  to  get  what  he 
regarded  as  life  or  death  requests  carried  into 
effect  owing  to  the  slothfulness  or  incompetent 
indifference  of  the  Admiralty,  was  continual  agony 
to  him.  He  writes  in  one  of  his  dispatches  to  the 
Admiralty:  "Were  I  to  die  this  moment,  want  of 
frigates  would  be  found  stamped  on  my  heart.  No 
words  of  mine,"  he  continues,  "can  express  what  I 
have  suffered  and  am  suffering  for  want  of  them.,, 


1 82      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

No  person  could  write  such  an  unconsciously 
comic  lament  to  a  department  supposed  to  be 
administered  with  proficiency  unless  he  were  borne 
down  by  a  deep  sense  of  its  appalling  incompe- 
tency. It  is  quite  likely  that  the  recipients  of  the 
burning  phrases  regarded  them  in  the  light  of  a 
joke,  but  they  were  very  real  to  the  wearied  soul 
of  the  man  who  wrote  them.  I  do  not  find  any 
instances  of  conscious  humour  in  any  of  Nelson's 
letters  or  utterances.  It  is  really  their  lack  of 
humour  that  is  humorous.  He  always  appears 
to  be  in  sober  earnest  about  affairs  that  matter, 
and  whimsically  affected  by  those  that  don't. 
The  following  lines,  which  are  not  my  own,  may 
be  regarded  as  something  akin  to  Nelson's  con- 
ception of  himself.  If  he  had  come  across  them, 
I  think  he  would  have  said  to  himself,  "Ah!  yes, 
these  verses  describe  my  mission  and  me." 

"Like  a  warrior  angel  sped 
On  a  mighty  mission, 
Light  and  life  about  him  shed — 
A  transcendent  vision. 

Mailed  in  gold  and  fire  he  stands, 
And,  with  splendours  shaken, 

Bids  the  slumbering  seas  and  lands 
Quicken  and  awaken." 

Nelson  never  attempted  to  carry  out  a  mere 
reckless  and  palpably  useless  feat  for  the  purpose 
of  show.  His  well-balanced  genius  of  caution 
and  accurate  judgment  was  the  guiding  instinct 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  ^3 

in  his  terrific  thrusts  which  mauled  the  enemy 
out  of  action  at  the  Nile,  St.  Vincent,  Copenhagen, 
and  Trafalgar,  and  enthralled  the  world  with  new 
conceptions  of  naval  warfare.  He  met  with  bit- 
ter disappointments  in  his  search  for  the  illusive 
French  fleet,  which  wore  him,  as  he  says,  to  a 
skeleton,  but  never  once  was  he  shaken  in  his 
vigorous  belief  that  he  would  catch  and  annihilate 
them  in  the  end.  They  cleverly  crept  out  of 
Toulon,  with  the  intention,  it  is  said,  of  going  to 
Egypt.  Villeneuve  was  no  fool  at  evasive  tactics. 
His  plan  was  practically  unerring,  and  threw 
Nelson  completely  off  the  scent  and  kept  him 
scouring  the  seas  in  search  of  the  bird  that  had 
flown  weeks  before.  Once  the  scent  is  lost,  it 
takes  a  long  time  to  pick  it  up.  Villeneuve  no 
doubt  argued  that  it  was  not  his  purpose  to  give 
the  British  Admiral  an  opportunity  of  fighting 
just  then.  He  had  other  fish  to  fry,  and  if  he 
wished  to  get  away  clear  from  Toulon  and  evade 
Nelson's  ships,  he  must  first  of  all  delude  him  by 
sending  a  few  ships  out  to  mislead  the  enemy's 
watch-dogs  or  drive  them  off;  if  that  succeeded 
(which  it  did  not),  he  would  then  wait  for  a  strong 
fair  wind  that  would  assure  him  of  a  speed  that 
would  outdistance  and  take  him  out  of  sight  of 
the  British  squadron,  and  make  sure  that  no  clue 
to  his  destination  was  left.  The  wind  was  strong 
N.N.W. ;  the  French  fleet  were  carrying  a  heavy 
press  of  canvas  and  steering  S.S.W.  The  British 
ships   that  were  following   concluded   that  they 


1 84      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

were  out  for  important  mischief,  and  returned  to 
convey  the  news  to  Nelson,  who  quickly  got  un- 
der way  and  followed  them.  Meanwhile,  Ville- 
neuve's  squadron,  after  getting  from  under  the 
shelter  of  the  land  into  the  open  sea,  lost  some  of 
their  spars  and  sails,  and  one  vessel,  it  is  recorded 
was  dismasted,  which  means,  in  seafaring  inter- 
pretation, that  all  her  masts  were  carried  away; 
as  she  succeeded,  however,  in  getting  into  Ajaccio, 
she  can  only  have  lost  her  royal  topgallant,  and 
possibly  a  topmast  or  two.  If  her  lower  masts 
had  been  carried  away,  she  could  not  have  got 
into  refuge  without  assistance,  and  the  rest  of  the 
fleet  apparently  had  enough  to  do  in  looking  after 
themselves,  as  they  lost  spars  and  sails  too,  and 
became  somewhat  scattered,  but  all  appear  to 
have  got  safely  into  Toulon  again  to  refit  and 
repair  the  damage  done  by  the  heavy  gale  they 
encountered. 

Meanwhile,  Nelson,  in  dismay  at  losing  touch 
with  them,  searched  every  nook  and  cranny  along 
the  Tyrrhenian  Sea,  and  making  sure  that  none 
of  them  were  in  hiding  and  that  the  sea  was  clear, 
he  proceeded  to  act  on  his  fixed  opinion  that  their 
objective  must  be  Egypt.  So  to  Egypt  he  went, 
and  the  bitter  disappointment  at  not  finding  them 
stunned  his  imagination,  so  sure  had  he  been  that 
his  well-considered  judgment  was  a  thing  to  which 
he  might  pin  his  faith,  and  that  his  lust  for  conflict 
with  the  "pests  of  the  human  race"  could  not 
escape  being  realized  in  the  vicinity  of  his  great 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  185 

victory  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile.  His  grievance 
against  Villeneuve  for  cheating  him  out  of  what 
he  believed  would  result  in  the  annihilation  of  the 
French  power  for  mischief  on  the  seas  brought 
forth  expressions  of  deadly  contempt  for  such 
astute,  sneaking  habits!  But  the  Emperor  was 
as  much  dissatisfied  with  the  performances  of  his 
admirals  as  Nelson  was,  though  in  a  different  way. 
Napoleon,  on  the  authority  of  the  French  histo- 
rian, M.  Thiers,  was  imperially  displeased.  He 
asks,  "What  is  to  be  done  with  admirals  who  allow 
their  spirits  to  sink  into  their  boots  [italics  are  the 
author's]  and  fly  for  refuge  as  soon  as  they  receive 
damage?  All  the  captains  ought  to  have  had 
sealed  orders  to  meet  at  the  Canary  Islands.  The 
damages  should  have  been  repaired  en  route. 
A  few  topmasts  carried  away  and  other  casualties 
in  a  gale  of  wind  are  everyday  occurrences.  The 
great  evil  of  our  Navy  is  that  the  men  who  com- 
mand it  are  unused  to  all  the  risks  of  command." 
This  indictment  is  to  a  large  extent  deserved, 
and  had  his  fleet  been  out  in  the  Atlantic  or  outside 
the  limits  of  the  vigilance  of  Nelson's  ships,  the 
putting  back  to  Toulon  or  anywhere  to  refit  the 
topmasts,  sails,  or  rigging  would  have  been  highly 
reprehensible.  But  in  any  case,  I  question  whether 
the  British  would  have  shown  the  white  feather 
or  lack  of  resource  under  any  circumstances.  On 
a  man-of-war  they  were  supposed  to  have  refits 
of  everything,  and  men,  properly  qualified,  in 
large  numbers  to  carry  out  any  prodigious  feat. 


186      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

On  the  other  hand,  the  British  have  always  ex- 
celled in  their  nautical  ability  to  guard  against 
deficiency  in  outfit,  which  was  not  overtested 
unless  there  was  sufficient  cause  to  demand  such 
a  risk.  This  applies  especially  to  the  sailing  war 
vessels  in  Nelson's  time.  I  think  there  can  be  no 
question  that  the  French  vessels  were  both  badly 
officered  and  manned  with  incapable  sailors,  and 
that  the  damage  which  led  them  back  to  Toulon 
was  caused  by  bad  judgment  in  seamanship. 
What  they  called  a  severe  gale  would  have  been 
regarded  by  an  Australian  clipper  or  Western 
Ocean  packet-ship  in  the  writer's  early  days  as  a 
hard  whole-sail  breeze,  perhaps  with  the  kites 
taken  in.  It  was  rare  that  these  dashing  com- 
manders ever  carried  away  a  spar,  and  it  was  not 
because  they  did  not  carry  on,  but  because  they 
knew  every  trick  of  the  vessel,  the  wind,  and  the 
sea.  It  was  a  common  saying  in  those  days  when 
vessels  were  being  overpowered  with  canvas, 
"The  old  lady  was  talking  to  us  now,"  i.  e.,  the 
vessel  was  asking  to  have  some  of  the  burden  of 
sail  taken  off  her.  I  have  known  topmasts  to  be 
carried  away,  but  it  generally  occurred  through 
some  flaw  in  a  bolt  or  unseen  defect  in  the  rig- 
ging. So  much  depends  on  the  security  of  little 
things.  But  when  a  catastrophe  of  this  kind  oc- 
curred on  board  a  British  merchantman  or  war 
vessel  the  men  had  both  the  courage,  skill,  train- 
ing, and,  above  all,  the  matchless  instinct  to  clear 
away  the  wreck  and  carry  out  the  refitting  in 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  187 

amazingly  short  time.  That  was  because  we 
were  then,  and  are  now  under  new  conditions,  an 
essentially  seafaring  race.  And  it  was  this  supe- 
riority that  gave  Nelson  such  great  advantages 
over  the  French  commanders  and  their  officers 
and  seamen,  though  it  must  be  admitted  they 
were  fast  drilled  by  the  force  of  circumstances 
into  foes  that  were  not  to  be  looked  upon  too 
lightly. 

The  elusive  tactics  of  the  French  admirals  then 
were  in  a  lesser  degree  similar  to  those  practised 
by  the  Germans  now,  if  it  be  proper  to  speak  or 
think  of  the  two  services  at  the  same  time  without 
libelling  them.  The  French  were  always  clean 
fighters,  however  much  they  may  have  been  de- 
spised by  Nelson.  They  were  never  guilty  of 
cowardly  revenge.  They  would  not  then,  or 
now,  send  hospital  ships  to  the  bottom  with  their 
crews  and  their  human  cargoes  of  wounded  sol- 
diers and  nurses.  Nor  would  they  indiscrimi- 
nately sink  merchant  vessels  loaded  with  civilian 
passengers  composed  of  men,  women,  and  child- 
ren, and  leave  them  to  drown,  as  is  the  inhuman 
practice  of  the  German  submarine  crews  of  today. 

The  French  in  other  days  were  our  bitterest 
enemies,  and  we  were  theirs.  We  charged  each 
other  with  abominations  only  different  from  what 
we  and  our  Allies,  the  French,  are  today  charging 
against  Germany,  that  was  then  our  ally.  We 
regarded  Germany  in  the  light  of  a  downtrodden 
nation  that  was  being  crushed  and  mutilated  un- 


1 88      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

der  the  relentless  heel  of  the  "Corsican  usurper." 
"Such  is  the  rancorous  hatred  of  the  French 
towards  us,"  says  Collingwood,  in  January,  1798, 
"that  I  do  not  think  they  would  make  peace  on 
any  terms  until  they  have  tried  this  experiment 
[i.e.  the  invasion  of  England]  on  our  country; 
and  never  was  a  country  assailed  by  so  formidable 
a  force";  and  he  goes  on  to  say,  "Men  of  property 
must  come  forward  both  with  purse  and  sword, 
for  the  contest  must  decide  whether  they  shall 
have  anything,  even  a  country  which  they  can 
call  their  own."  This  is  precisely  what  we  are 
saying  about  Germany  with  greater  reason  every 
day  at  the  present  time  (191 8). 

It  has  been  the  common  practice  for  German 
submarine  commanders  to  sink  at  sight  British, 
neutral  cargo  and  passenger  vessels,  and  hospital 
ships  loaded  with  wounded  troops  and  nurses. 
They  have  put  themselves  outside  the  pale  of 
civilization  since  they  forced  the  whole  world  into 
conflict  against  them.  Nothing  has  been  too 
hideous  for  them  to  do.  They  have  blown  poor 
defenceless  fishermen  to  pieces,  and  bombarded  de- 
fenceless villages  and  towns,  killing  and  maiming 
the  inhabitants. 

Nelson's  ardent  soul  must  have  been  wearied 
with  the  perversity  of  the  "dead  foul  winds" 
(as  he  described  his  bitter  fate  to  Ball)  that  pre- 
vented him  from  piercing  the  Straits  of  Gibral- 
tar against  the  continuous  easterly  current  that 
runs  from  the  Atlantic  and  spreads  far  into  the 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  189 

Mediterranean  with  malicious  fluctuations  of 
velocity.  Many  a  gallant  sailing-ship  commander 
has  been  driven  to  despair  in  other  days  by  the 
friendly  levanter  failing  him  just  as  he  was  well- 
nigh  through  the  Gut  or  had  reached  the  foot  of  the 
majestic  Rock,  when  the  west  wind  would  assert 
its  power  over  its  feebler  adversary,  and  unless 
he  was  in  a  position  to  fetch  an  anchorage  behind 
the  Rock  or  in  the  bay,  his  fate  was  sealed  for 
days,  and  sometimes  weeks,  in  hard  beating  to 
prevent  as  little  ground  being  lost  as  possible. 
But  ofttimes  he  drifted  as  far  back  as  Cape  de 
Gata  in  spite  of  daring  feats  of  seamanship  in 
pressing  his  vessel  with  canvas  until  every  spar, 
sail,  and  rope  was  overstrained.  A  traditional 
story  of  sailors  of  that  period  was  that  only  a 
fast  clipper  schooner  engaged  in  the  fruit  trade 
and  a  line-of-battle  ship  which  fired  her  lee  guns 
on  every  tack  were  ever  known  to  beat  through 
this  channel,  which  mystified  the  sailors*  ideas 
of  God!  They  could  not  understand  how  He 
could  have  committed  such  an  error  in  planning 
the  universe  which  so  tried  the  spirits  of  His 
loyal  believers. 

We  know  how  catholic  Nelson  was  in  his  reli- 
gious views;  and  his  feats  of  expressive  vocabu- 
lary, which  was  the  envy  of  his  class  at  the  time, 
became  their  heritage  after  he  had  accomplished 
his  splendid  results  and  passed  into  the  shadows. 
Such  things  as  the  strength  of  the  adverse  sea 
winds,  his  experience  of  the  capriciousness  of  the 


190      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

official  mind, — a  capriciousness  which  might  be 
reflected  in  the  public  imagination  were  he  not 
to  be  wholly  successful  in  getting  hold  of  the 
French  fleet, — and  the  indignity  of  having  a  man 
like  Sir  John  Orde  put  over  him,  all  filled  his  sen- 
sitive nature  with  resentment  against  the  ordi- 
nances of  God  and  man.  His  complaints  were 
always  accompanied  with  a  devotional  air  and  an 
avowal  of  supreme  indifference  to  what  he  regarded 
as  the  indecent  treatment  he  received  at  the  hands 
of  the  amateurish  bureaucrats  at  the  Admiralty. 
At  times  they  were  out  of  humour  with  the  great 
chieftain,  and  perhaps  at  no  time  did  they  make 
him  feel  their  dissatisfaction  more  than  when 
adverse  winds,  a  crazy  fleet,  and  a  deadly  current 
were  eating  deep  into  his  eager  soul  at  a  time  when 
the  genius  of  seamanship  was  unavailing  in  the 
effort  to  get  through  into  the  Atlantic  in  pursuit 
of  the  French  fleet,  which  his  instinct  told  him 
was  speeding  towards  the  West  Indies. 

Sir  John  Orde,  who  was  an  aversion  to  him  (as 
well  he  might  be),  had  seen  the  French  fleet  off 
Cadiz,  and  failed  to  procure  him  the  information 
as  to  their  course.  Nelson  believed,  and  properly 
believed,  that  an  alert  mind  would  have  found  a 
way  of  spying  out  the  enemy's  intentions,  but 
Sir  John's  resource  did  not  extend  to  anything  be- 
yond the  fear  of  being  attacked  and  overpowered. 
He  obviously  was  devoid  of  any  of  the  arts  of  the 
wily  pirate  or  smuggler.  A  month  after  the  French 
had  passed  through  the  Gut,  Nelson  got  his  chance. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  191 

A  change  of  wind  came  within  five  hours  after 
a  southerly  slant  brought  his  ships  to  anchor  in 
Gibraltar  Bay  for  water  and  provisions.  He 
immediately  gave  the  signal  to  heave  the  anchors 
up,  and  proceeded  with  a  fair  wind  which  lasted 
only  forty-eight  hours.  He  anchored  his  fleet  to 
the  east  of  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and  took  on  board 
supplies  from  the  transports.  He  received  from 
different  sources  conflicting  accounts  as  to  the 
objective  of  the  French,  but  the  predominating 
opinion  was  that  they  had  gone  to  the  West  Indies. 
Nelson  was  in  a  state  of  bewilderment,  but  decided 
to  follow  his  own  head,  and  pinned  his  faith  on 
the  instinct  that  told  him  to  follow  westward, 
"to  be  burnt  in  effigy  if  he  failed,  or  Westminster 
Abbey  if  he  succeeded."  The  adventure  was 
daring  both  in  point  of  destination  and  the  unequal 
strength  of  the  relative  fleets.  Nelson  had  ten 
ships  of  the  line  and  three  frigates,  against  Ville- 
neuve's  eighteen  and  two  new  line-of-battle  ships. 
But  the  British  Admiral's  genius  and  the  super- 
iority of  his  commanders,  officers,  and  men, 
should  they  come  to  battle,  would  more  than 
match  Villeneuve's  superiority  in  ships.  Nelson, 
always  sure  of  his  own  powers,  could  also  depend 
upon  the  loyalty  of  men  of  every  rank  under  him. 
He  knew  that  the  terrible  spirit  which  shattered 
and  scattered  Spanish  Philip's  Armada  was  an 
inheritance  that  had  grown  deep  into  every  fibre 
of  the  generations  of  seamen  that  followed  Hawkins 
and  Drake's  invincibles.     When  Nelson  delivered 


192      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

himself  of  death-or-glory  heroics,  he  did  so  with 
the  consciousness  that  he  was.  the  spirit  that 
enthused  masses  of  other  spirits  to  carry  out  his 
dominating  will. 

On  the  14th  May,  1805,  anchors  were  picked 
up  and  the  fleet  left  Lagos  Bay  under  full  sail 
for  the  West  Indies.  The  trade-winds  were  soon 
picked  up,  and  every  stitch  of  canvas  that  would 
catch  a  breath  of  wind  was  spread.  The  speed 
ranged  from  six  to  nine  knots,  according  to  the 
strength  of  the  wind,  the  Admiral  taking  any 
available  opportunity  of  conveying  to  the  com- 
manders the  plan  of  attack  and  action  should  they 
fall  in  with  the  Frenchmen.  The  task  of  keeping 
his  own  ships  together  was  not  easy,  as  some  were 
faster  than  others,  and  many  had  foul  bottoms. 
There  was  much  manipulation  of  yards  and  sails 
in  order  to  keep  the  line  in  order,  and  Nelson  even 
went  out  of  his  way  to  have  a  note  of  encourage- 
ment and  kindness  sent  aboard  the  Superb  (seventy- 
four  guns)  for  Commander  Keats,  whose  ship  had 
been  continuously  in  commission  since  1801,  and 
was  in  bad  condition.  Her  sailing  qualities  were 
vexatious.  Keats  implored  that  he  should  not 
be  disconnected  from  the  main  fleet  now  that  the 
hoped-for  battle  was  so  near  at  hand,  and  being 
a  great  favourite  of  Nelson's,  he  was  given  per- 
mission constantly  to  carry  a  press  of  canvas; 
so  the  gallant  captain  carried  his  studding-sails 
while  running  before  the  trade-winds,  but  notwith- 
standing this  effort,  the  lazy,  dilapidated  Superb 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  193 

could  not  keep  pace  with  the  others,  even  though 
he  was  granted  the  privilege  of  not  stopping  when 
the  others  did.  His  urgency  not  to  be  dropped 
out  on  this  occasion  caused  him  the  hard  luck  of 
not  being  at  the  battle  of  Trafalgar. 

The  British  fleet  arrived  at  Barbadoes  after  a 
twenty-four  days'  passage  from  Lagos  Bay.  The 
French  took  thirty-four  from  Cadiz  to  Martinique, 
so  that  Nelson  had  a  gain  of  ten  days  on  them, 
and  although  his  zeal  yearned  for  better  results, 
he  had  performed  a  feat  that  was  not  to  be  despised, 
and  of  which  he  and  his  comrades  in  quest  of  battle 
were  deservedly  proud.  The  French  had  been 
three  weeks  in  the  West  Indies,  but  had  done  no 
further  mischief  than  to  take  the  Diamond  Rock, 
a  small  British  possession  situated  off  the  south 
end  of  Martinique.  The  whereabouts  of  the  elu- 
sive enemy  was  uncertain.  General  Brereton, 
who  commanded  the  troops  at  Santa  Lucia,  gave 
information  that  they  had  passed  on  the  28th 
May,  steering  south.  The  admirals  decided  that 
they  had  proceeded  to  Tobago  and  Trinidad. 
Nelson  was  doubtful,  but  was  obliged  to  pay  some 
regard  to  intelligence  coming  from  such  a  quarter. 
Accurate  information  received  on  the  9th  June, 
1805,  confirmed  the  Admiral's  doubts  as  to  their 
objective,  for  they  had  passed  Dominica  on  the 
6th.  Brereton  had  unintentionally  misled  him. 
Nelson  was  almost  inarticulate  with  rage,  and 
avowed  that  by  this  slovenly  act  the  General  had 
prevented  him  from  giving  battle  north  of  Domi- 
13 


194      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

nica  on  the  6th.  "What  a  race  I  have  run  after 
these  fellows !"  he  exclaimed,  and  then,  as  was  his 
custom,  leaning  on  the  Power  that  governs  all 
things,  he  declares,  "but  God  is  just,  and  I  may 
be  repaid  for  all  my  moments  of  anxiety."  His 
belief  in  the  advent  of  Divine  vengeance  on  those 
who  doubted  or  threatened  the  awful  supremacy 
of  British  dominion  on  land  or  sea  was  stimulat- 
ing to  him.  Like  the  Domremy  maiden,  who 
saved  her  king  and  country,  he  had  "visions  and 
heard  voices." 

Whatever  the  mission  of  the  French  fleet  may 
have  been,  there  was  certainly  no  apparent  lust 
for  aggrandizement.  We  may  be  certain  that 
Napoleon's  orders  were  to  carry  out  vigorous 
bombardments  on  British  possessions,  and  instead 
of  doing  so,  Villeneuve  seems  to  have  been  dis- 
tractedly and  aimlessly  sailing  about,  not  knowing 
what  to  do  or  whither  to  go.  Apparently  without 
any  definite  object,  he  arrived  off  Antigua  on  the 
9th  June,  and  had  the  good  fortune,  whether  he 
sought  for  it  or  not,  of  capturing  fourteen  British 
merchant  vessels;  but  he  appears  to  have  been 
quite  phlegmatic  about  making  the  haul.  He  was 
more  concerned  about  the  news  the  crews  were 
able  to  give  him  of  Nelson's  arrival  at  Barbadoes; 
not  that  he  was  constrained  to  give  him  the  op- 
portunity of  measuring  strength  with  his  now 
twenty-six  of  the  line,  but  it  was  a  guide  to  the 
best  means  of  making  his  escape.  This  may  have 
been  a  strategical  move  of  wearing  down;  or  he 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  195 

may  have  been  carrying  out  a  concerted  plan  for 
leaving  Nelson  in  bewilderment  and  proceeding 
with  all  speed  to  some  British  European  point 
where,  since  there  was  no  outstanding  naval  fig- 
ure, bar  Collingwood,  who  could  stand  up  against 
so  powerful  a  combination  of  ships  of  the  line, 
resistance  would  be  less  and  success  assured.  It 
is  questionable  whether  Villeneuve  ever  took  this 
man  of  great  hidden  power  and  foresight  into 
account.  It  was  Nelson,  his  chief,  who  put  terror 
into  the  fleet.  In  any  case,  whatever  his  plans 
may  have  been,  the  intelligence  he  gleaned  from 
the  seized  merchant  seamen  caused  him  to  make 
arrangements  to  sail  from  Antigua  the  next  day 
for  Europe.  The  present  writer's  opinion  is  that 
he  may  have  had  secret  orders  from  Napoleon  to 
make  an  attack  on  Ireland,  as  the  Emperor  never 
faltered  in  his  view  that  this  was  the  most  preg- 
nable spot  in  which  to  hazard  an  invasion  and 
strike  a  crushing  blow  at  the  main  artery.  He 
little  knew  the  real  loyalty  of  the  great  mass  of 
Irishmen  to  their  own  and  to  the  mother-land,  and 
only  realized  later  that  his  way  to  England  was 
not  through  Ireland. 

The  exit  of  the  French  was  hard  fate  for  Nelson, 
who  had  fired  his  enthusiasm  with  the  hope  of  a 
great  conflict  and  a  sure  victory.  It  was  a  creep- 
ing nightmare  to  him  which  was  relieved  only  by 
his  resolute  opinion  that  his  fame  and  the  terror 
of  his  name  had  caused  Villeneuve  to  fly  from 
inevitable  destruction.    The  idea  of  strategy  did 


196      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

not  enter  into  his  calculations.  A  further  con- 
solation to  him  was  that  his  arrival  had  saved  the 
islands  and  two  hundred  ships  loaded  with  sugar 
from  being  captured,  so  that  the  gain  was  all  on 
his  side.  So  far  as  the  West  Indies  were  concerned, 
the  French  expedition  ended  not  only  in  a  dead 
loss,  but  in  a  humiliating  fiasco,  unless,  as  I  have 
stated  before,  it  was  a  preconceived  decoy  for  some 
other  purpose.  But  whether  it  was  strategy  or 
decoy,  it  taxes  one's  intelligence  to  conceive  why 
the  French  fleet  did  not  proceed  to  bombard 
the  British  possessions  on  arrival,  then  steal  into 
safe  obscurity,  and  make  their  way  back  to  Euro- 
pean waters.  The  evasion  of  Nelson's  scouts  in 
any  case  was  a  matter  of  adroit  cunning.  Had  a 
man  of  Nelson's  nimble  wits  and  audacious  cour- 
age commanded  the  enemy's  fleet,  the  islands 
would  have  been  attacked  and  left  in  a  dilapi- 
dated condition.  Nelson's  opinion  was  that  the 
Spanish  portion  of  the  expedition  had  gone  to 
Havana,  and  that  the  French  would  make  for 
Cadiz  or  Toulon,  the  latter  he  thought  most 
likely,  with  the  ultimate  object  of  Egypt.  And 
with  this  vision  floating  in  his  mind,  he  determined 
to  make  for  the  Straits.  On  the  13th  June,  1805, 
he  sailed  from  Antigua,  and  was  almost  merry 
at  the  thought  of  getting  close  at  their  heels,  and 
toppling  them  into  ruin  before  they  had  got  into 
the  Mediterranean.  He  regarded  them  in  the 
light  of  miserable  naval  amateurs  that  could  be 
whacked,  even  with  the  odds  against  him.     Five 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  i97 

days  after  sailing,  one  of  his  scout  ships  brought 
the  news  given  by  a  vessel  they  spoke  that  she 
had  sighted  them  steering  north  on  the  15th, 
and  as  the  colours  of  each  dying  day  faded  away 
and  brought  no  French  fleet  in  view,  or  intelligence 
of  them,  he  grew  restive  and  filled  with  apprehen- 
sion. He  had  no  delusions  about  the  accuracy 
of  his  perceptions,  the  soundness  of  his  judg- 
ment, or  the  virtue  of  his  prudence.  Without  a 
disturbing  thought  he  pursued  his  course  towards 
the  Mediterranean,  and  unless  intelligence  came 
to  him  that  would  justify  a  diversion,  no  wild 
fancies  would  be  permitted  to  take  possession  of 
him.  On  the  18th  July  he  sighted  Cape  Spartel, 
and  any  sailor  will  say  that  no  grass  had  been 
allowed  to  grow  under  the  bottoms  of  the  ships 
that  made  so  quick  a  passage.  But  Nelson  was 
"sorrowful"  that  no  results  had  accrued.  Like 
a  strong  man  who  has  opinions  and  carries  them 
through  to  the  bitter  end,  he  did  not  "blame  him- 
self." He  blew  off  some  of  the  pent-up  bitterness 
of  an  aching  heart  by  writing  to  a  friend:  "But 
for  General  Brereton's  damned  information,  I 
would  have  been  living  or  dead,  and  the  greatest 
man  England  ever  saw,  and  now  I  am  nothing 
and  perhaps  would  incur  censure  for  misfortunes 
which  may  happen  and  have.  Oh!  General 
Brereton !    General  Brereton ! " 

This  explosion  was  indicative  of  bitter  disap- 
pointment. It  is  these  outbursts  of  devotion  to 
a  great  burning  ideal  that  give  an  impulse  to  the 


198      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

world.  His  anxiety  when  he  made  his  landfall 
and  was  informed  by  scouts  sent  to  meet  him 
that  the  allied  squadrons  had  not  been  heard  of 
was  intense.  It  was  not  until  then  that  his  vigor- 
ous mind  was  smitten  with  the  possibility  of  the 
French  having  cheated  him  by  going  to  Jamaica. 
Orde  had  been  superseded  by  Collingwood,  and 
was  stationed  off  Cadiz,  the  purpose  of  which  was 
to  watch  the  entrance  to  the  Mediterranean. 
Nelson  wrote  and  sent  him  the  following  letter: 

My  dear  Collingwood: — I  am,  as  you  may  suppose, 
miserable  at  not  falling  in  with  the  enemy's  fleet;  and  I 
am  almost  increased  in  sorrow  in  not  finding  them  here. 
The  name  of  General  Brereton  will  not  soon  be  forgot.  I 
must  now  hope  that  the  enemy  have  not  tricked  me,  and 
gone  to  Jamaica;  but  if  the  account,  of  which  I  send  you 
a  copy,  is  correct,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  they  are 
either  gone  to  the  northward,  or,  if  bound  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean, not  yet  arrived. 

The  vivid  symptoms  of  disquietude  in  this  com- 
munication to  his  old  friend  are  distinctly  pathetic. 
In  parts  he  is  comically  peevish  and  decidedly 
restrained.  He  mixes  his  fierce  wrath  against 
the  hapless  General  Brereton  with  the  generalizing 
of  essentials,  and  transparently  holds  back  the 
crushing  thoughts  of  misadventure  for  which  he 
may  be  held  responsible  by  the  misanthropic, 
scurrilous,  self-assertive  experts.  His  impassive 
periods  were  always  associated  with  whimsical 
sensitiveness  of  being  censured  if  his  adventures 
should  miscarry.     No  one  knew  better  than  he 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  *99 

that  a  man  in  his  position  could  be  popular  only 
if  he  continued  to  succeed.  He  had  many  critics, 
but  always  regarded  them  as  inferior  to  himself, 
and  his  record  justified  him.  What  he  secretly 
quaked  at  and  openly  defied  was  a  general  outburst 
of  human  capriciousness.  There  are  veiled  indi- 
cations of  this  in  his  letter  to  Collingwood,  who 
replied  in  well-reasoned  terms,  interwoven  with 
that  charm  of  tender  sympathy  that  was  so  natural 
to  him. 

He  says:  "I  have  always  had  the  idea  that 
Ireland  was  the  object  the  French  had  in  view," 
and  that  he  still  believes  that  to  be  their  destina- 
tion; and  then  he  proceeds  to  develop  his  reasons, 
which  are  a  combination  of  practical,  human,  and 
technical  inferences.  His  strongest  point  is  one 
that  Nelson  did  not  or  could  not  know,  though  it 
may  be  argued  that  he  ought  to  have  foreseen; 
even  then  it  is  one  expert's  judgment  against  an- 
other's. Collingwood  affirms  that  the  Rochefort 
squadron,  which  sailed  when  Villeneuve  did  in 
January,  returned  to  Europe  on  the  26th  May. 
Collingwood  maintains  that  the  West  Indian 
trip  was  to  weaken  the  British  force  on  the  Euro- 
pean side,  and  states  that  the  return  of  Rochefort's 
squadron  confirmed  him  in  this.  He  is  too  gener- 
ous to  his  mortified  comrade  to  detract  in  any 
degree  from  the  view  that,  having  escaped  from 
the  West  Indies,  they  would  naturally  make  for 
Cadiz  or  the  Mediterranean.  Here  is  one  of  the 
many  wise  sayings  of  Napoleon:  "In  business  the 


200      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

worst  thing  of  all  is  an  undecided  mind";  and 
this  may  be  applied  to  any  phase  of  human  affairs. 
Nelson  can  never  be  accused  of  indecision.  His 
chase  to  the  West  Indies  was  a  masterpiece  of 
prescience  which  saved  the  British  possessions, 
and,  but  for  the  clumsy  intelligence  he  received,  the 
French  fleet  would  have  been  a  hammered  wreck 
and  the  projected  ruse  to  combine  it  with  the 
Rochefort  squadron  off  Ireland  blown  sky-high. 

The  present  generation  of  critics  can  only  judge 
by  the  records  handed  down  to  them,  and  after 
exhaustive  study  we  are  forced  to  the  opinion  that 
Nelson  was  right  in  following  Villeneuve  to  the 
West  Indies,  nor  was  he  wrong  in  calculating  that 
they  were  impulsively  making  their  way  back  to 
the  Mediterranean.  Consistent  with  his  habit 
of  never  claiming  the  privilege  of  changing  his 
mind,  he  followed  his  settled  opinion  and  defended 
his  convictions  with  vehement  confidence.  He 
had  not  overlooked  Ireland,  but  his  decision  came 
down  on  the  side  of  Cadiz  or  Toulon,  and  there 
it  had  to  rest,  and  in  rather  ridiculous  support 
of  his  contention  he  imputes  faulty  navigation  as 
the  cause  of  taking  them  out  of  their  course,  and 
finding  themselves  united  to  the  Rochefort  squad- 
ron off  Cape  Finisterre.  The  bad-reckoning  idea 
cannot  be  sustained.  The  French  were  no  match 
for  the  British  under  Nelson's  piercing  genius  as 
a  naval  strategist,  or  in  the  flashes  of  dazzling 
enthusiasm  with  which  he  led  those  under  his 
command  to  fight,  but  it  must  also  be  admitted, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  201 

and  has  been  over  and  over  again,  that  Villeneuve 
was  a  skilled  seaman  who  was  not  likely  to  allow 
any  amateur  navigators  in  his  service,  and  we 
shall  see  that  in  the  plan  of  defence  this  great 
French  Admiral  showed  that  he  was  fertile  in 
naval  skill  when  the  time  came  for  him  to  fight 
for  existence  against  the  greatest  naval  prodigy 
in  the  world. 

Whatever  the  reason  was  that  caused  Villeneuve 
not  to  make  for  the  Mediterranean,  it  certainly 
cannot  be  ascribed  to  lubberly  navigation,  and 
Nelson  should  never  have  tried  to  sustain  his 
perfectly  sound  belief  by  seeking  refuge  in  that 
untenable  direction.     God  bless  him  all  the  same! 

On  his  arrival  at  Gibraltar  on  the  20th  July, 
1805,  he  set  foot  on  shore  for  the  first  time  for  two 
years  less  ten  days.  This  in  itself  was  a  great 
feat  of  hard  endurance  for  a  man  who  had  to 
carry  so  heavy  a  burden  of  continuous  physical 
suffering  and  terrible  anxiety.  Maddened  and 
depressed  often,  stumbling  often,  falling  often, 
but  despairing  never,  sorrow  and  sadness  briefly 
encompassed  him  when  fate  ordained  disappoint- 
ments. But  his  heart  was  big  with  hope  that  he 
would  accomplish  complete  victory  before  the 
sentence  of  death  came,  which  he  never  ceased  to 
forebode.  He  was  a  human  force,  not  a  pheno- 
menon. On  the  22d  July,  Sir  Robert  Calder  and 
Villeneuve  fought  a  drawn  or  indecisive  battle. 
Only  two  Spanish  ships  of  the  line  were  taken. 
The  French  Admiral  put  into  Vigo  on  the  28th, 


202      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

and  managed  to  slip  out,  and  arrived  at  Ferrol 
without  being  intercepted.  Nelson  provisioned 
his  ships  for  four  months,  and  sailed  from  Tetuan 
on  the  23  d.  On  the  25th  he  passed  through  the 
Straits  with  the  intention  of  going  to  Ferrol,  Ire- 
land, or  Ushant,  whichever  his  information  and 
judgment  told  him  was  the  best  course  to  pursue. 
He  experienced  strong  northerly  winds  along  the 
Portuguese  coast,  which  prevented  him  from  join- 
ing the  Channel  Fleet  off  Ushant  until  August 
16th,  and  as  no  news  had  been  received  of  the 
French  being  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay  or  off  the  Irish 
coast,  he  was  ordered  by  Cornwallis  to  Portsmouth, 
and  anchored  at  Spithead  on  the  18th  August. 
His  reception  from  every  quarter  was  most  cordial, 
as  well  it  might  be !  But  the  thought  of  how  much 
greater  it  would  have  been  if  he  had  not  been 
misguided  and  thereby  deprived  of  coming  to 
grips  with  the  foe  that  was  still  at  large  and  out- 
witting every  device  of  bringing  them  to  close 
quarters,  had  eaten  like  a  canker  into  his  troubled 
mind.  In  his  letters  to  friends  (Davison  and 
others)  his  postscripts  were  for  ever  being  embel- 
lished with  reference  to  it  and  the  darting  of  an 
incidental  "damn"  to  General  Brereton,  who, 
it  is  contended,  was  himself  deceived.  But  Nel- 
son, generous  as  he  always  was  to  people  who  were 
encompassed  by  misfortune,  never  would  allow 
that  Brereton  had  any  right  to  allow  himself  to 
be  misled.  One  wonders  how  the  immortal  Gen- 
eral  Brereton  worked   it  out.     In  any  case,  the 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  203 

great  Admiral  has  given  him  a  place  in  history  by 
his  side. 

Nelson  first  heard  of  Sir  Robert  Calder' s  scrap 
from  the  Ushant  squadron,  and  was  strong  in 
sympathy  and  defence  against  the  unworthy 
public  attacks  made  on  the  Admiral  for  not  suc- 
ceeding as  he  would.  In  writing  to  Fremantle 
about  Calder,  he  says,  amongst  other  things:  "I 
should  have  fought  the  enemy,  so  did  my  friend 
Calder;  I  only  wish  to  stand  upon  my  own  merits, 
and  not  by  comparison,  one  way  or  the  other, 
upon  the  conduct  of  a  brother  officer,"  etc.  This 
rebuke  to  a  public  that  was  treating  his  brother 
officer  ungenerously  may  be  summarized  thus: 
"I  want  none  of  your  praises  at  the  expense  of 
this  gallant  officer,  who  is  serving  his  country  sur- 
rounded with  complex  dangers  that  you  are  igno- 
rant of,  and  therefore  it  is  indecent  of  you  to  judge 
by  comparing  him  with  me  or  any  one  else.  I 
want  none  of  your  praises  at  his  expense.,, 

This  is  only  one  of  the  noble  traits  in  Nelson's 
character,  and  is  the  secret  why  he  unconsciously 
endeared  himself  to  everybody.  His  comical  van- 
ity and  apparent  egotism  are  overshadowed  by 
human  touches  such  as  this  worthy  intervention 
on  behalf  of  Sir  Robert  Calder,  who  he  had  reason 
to  know  was  not  professionally  well  disposed  to 
him.  But  his  defence  of  Calder  did  not  close  with 
Fremantle,  for  in  a  letter  to  his  brother  soon 
after  he  got  home  he  says:  "We  must  now  talk 
of  Sir  Robert  Calder.     I  might  not  have  done  so 


204      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

much  with  my  small  force.  If  I  had  fallen  in 
with  them  you  might  probably  have  been  a  lord 
before  I  wished;  for  I  know  they  meant  to  make 
a  dead  set  at  the  Victory."  These  lines  alone 
show  how  reverently  the  writer  adhered  to  the 
brotherly  tie  of  the  profession.  He  seems  to  say, 
"Let  us  have  no  more  talk  of  puerilities.  I  am 
the  stronger.  I  have  recently  been  frustrated 
myself.  I  know  this  business  better  than  Calder's 
traducers  do,  and  therefore  conceive  it  my  duty 
to  defend  him.  He  also  has  rendered  great  services 
to  his  country." 

When  it  was  known  that  Nelson  had  arrived  in 
England,  he  was  overwhelmed  with  generous 
tokens  of  affection  and  gratitude  from  all  classes. 
Thousands  crowded  into  Portsmouth  to  see  him 
land,  and  the  cheering  was  long  and  lusty.  In 
London,  the  mob,  drunk  with  excitement,  strug- 
gled to  get  sight  of  him,  many  crushing  their 
way  so  that  they  might  shake  him  by  the  hand 
or  even  touch  him.  Lord  Minto  said  he  met  him 
in  Piccadilly,  took  him  by  the  arm,  and  was 
mobbed  also.  He  goes  on  to  say:  "It  is  really 
quite  affecting  to  see  the  wonder,  admiration,  and 
love  for  him  from  gentle  and  simple  the  moment 
he  is  seen,"  and  concludes  by  stating  that  it  is 
beyond  anything  represented  in  a  play  or  in  a 
poem  of  fame. 

Commercial  men  everywhere  passed  resolutions 
of  gratitude  for  the  protection  he  had  secured  in 
their  different  interests.     The  West  India  mer- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  205 

chants  sent  a  deputation  to  express  their  never- 
to-be-forgotten  thanks,  and  would  have  loaded 
him  with  material  tokens  of  their  goodwill  had 
it  been  proper  to  do  so.  He  lost  no  time  in  getting 
to  Merton,  which  was  the  thought  and  happiness 
of  his  soul.  He  was  invited  here,  there,  and 
everywhere,  and  always  replied  that  he  could  not 
accept,  as  all  his  family  were  with  him.  Lord 
Minto,  who  was  a  devoted  friend,  visited  him  on 
the  15th  August,  and  says  that  he  "found  him 
in  the  act  of  sitting  down  to  dinner  with  his  brother 
the  Dean,  his  wife,  and  their  children,  and  the 
children  of  a  sister.  Lady  Hamilton  was  at  the 
head  of  the  table,  and  her  mother,  Mrs.  Cadogan, 
at  the  bottom.  His  welcome  was  hearty.  Nelson 
looked  well  and  was  full  of  spirits.  Lady  Hamil- 
ton," he  continues,  "had  improved,  and  had 
added  to  the  house  and  place  extremely  well, 
without  his  knowing  she  was  doing  it.  She  is  a 
clever  being,  after  all  the  passion  is  as  hot  as  ever." 
These  glad  moments  of  keen  rapture,  which 
filled  Nelson  with  a  sort  of  mystic  joy,  were  soon 
to  be  cut  short.  Swiftly  the  sweet  days  were 
passing  away,  and  the  sombre  parting  from  "  dear 
Merton  and  loving  hearts  for  evermore "  was 
drawing  near.  In  his  day-dreams  he  saw  more 
fame,  more  professional  gladness,  more  triumph. 
He  saw,  too,  as  he  pensively  walked  in  his  garden, 
the  grave  nearly  ready  to  receive  him  and  the 
day  of  his  glory  and  brightness  coming.  These 
were  his  abiding  premonitions,  which  were  jerked 


206      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

out  to  his  close  friends,  and  even  during  his  last 
sojourn  at  Merton,  to  those  he  loved  so  well. 
Even  at  this  distance  of  time  we  cannot  think  with 
composure  of  this  many-sided  man  declaring 
sadly  that  death  had  no  terrors  for  him,  and  that 
he  was  ready  to  face  the  last  great  problem  in 
the  conflict  which  was  to  break  the  power  at  sea 
of  the  great  conqueror  on  land.  He  had  not  been 
long  in  the  plenitude  of  domestic  bliss  before 
Captain  Blackwood  called  one  morning  at  five 
o'clock  with  dispatches  sent  by  Collingwood  for 
the  Admiralty.  Nelson  was  already  dressed,  and 
in  his  quick  penetrating  way  told  him  that  "he 
was  certain  he  brought  news  of  the  combined 
enemy's  fleet,"  and,  without  waiting  for  an  answer, 
exclaimed,  "I  think  I  shall  have  to  beat  them," 
and  subsequently  added,  "Depend  upon  it,  Black- 
wood, I  shall  yet  give  M.  Villeneuve  a  drubbing." 
The  latter  had  slipped  out  of  Ferrol  and  elusively 
made  his  way  to  Cadiz  without  having  been  seen 
by  the  British.  Nelson's  services  were  again  re- 
quested by  the  Government,  and  eagerly  given, 
though  he  declared  that  he  was  in  need  of  more 
rest  and  that  he  had  done  enough.  But  these 
were  mere  transient  observations,  probably  to 
impress  those  with  whom  he  talked  or  to  whom 
he  wrote  with  the  importance  of  his  position  with 
the  Cabinet,  who  now  regarded  him  as  indispen- 
sable, which  was  in  reality  quite  true,  though  he 
was  none  the  less  proud  of  the  high  confidence 
they  had  in  him  and  of  the  popular  approval  their 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  207 

selection  had  with  the  public.  The  phrase  "Let 
the  man  trudge  who  has  lost  his  budget"  was 
mere  bluff.  He  wanted  to  go  all  the  time,  and 
would  have  felt  himself  grievously  insulted  had 
the  Government  regarded  even  his  health  unequal 
to  so  gigantic  a  task  or  suggested  that  a  better 
man  could  be  found. 

Nelson,  always  hungering  for  approbation,  slyly 
hinted  that  it  would  be  a  risky  thing  for  the  Gov- 
ernment's existence  had  they  not  placed  full  con- 
trol of  the  fleet  in  his  hands,  so  popular  a  hold  had 
he  on  all  classes  of  naval  men  and  the  entire  pub- 
lic imagination.  Nelson  was  often  exasperated 
by  the  dull  ignorance  of  the  Government  as  to 
how  naval  policy  should  be  conducted,  and  by 
their  combined  irresolution  and  impatience  at 
critical  periods,  when  success  depended  upon  his 
paving  a  free  hand  to  act  as  circumstances  arose. 
Of  course,  he  took  a  free  hand  and  never  failed 
to  succeed.  But  he  frequently  complained  that 
he  laid  himself  open  to  be  shot  or  degraded  by 
doing  so,  and  it  is  only  one  man  in  a  century  that 
is  possessed  of  sufficient  audacity  to  ignore  the 
authority  over  him  and  with  supreme  skill  to 
carry  out  his  own  plans.  In  support  of  the  views 
that  were  bound  to  be  held  by  a  man  of  Nelson's 
calibre  as  to  the  qualities  of  some  of  his  superiors 
in  the  Government  who  wished  to  impose  upon 
him  a  definite  line  of  action,  we  quote  a  letter 
written  to  Captain  Keats,  which  has  appeared 
in  almost  every  life  of  Nelson  that  has  been  pub- 


208      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

lished.  It  is  pregnant  with  subtle  contemptuous 
remarks  which  may  be  applied  to  the  naval  ad- 
ministration of  the  present  time  (March,  191 8). 
It  is  not  only  a  danger,  but  a  crime,  in  the  process 
of  any  war,  but  especially  during  the  present,  to 
gamble  with  the  safety  of  the  nation  by  neglecting 
to  have  at  the  head  of  a  great  department  a  man 
who  has  not  only  a  genius  for  administrative 
initiative  in  this  particular  sphere  but  an  unerring 
instinct  to  guide  and  grapple  with  its  everyday 
perplexities.  It  is  colossal  aptitude,  not  mechani- 
calness,  that  is  needed. 

But  here  is  the  matchless  sailor's  opinion  of 
the  situation  in  this  respect  in  his  day: 

The  Secretary  of  State  [Lord  Castlereagh],  which  is  a 
man  who  has  only  sat  one  day  in  his  office,  and,  of  course, 
knows  but  little  of  what  is  passed,  and  indeed  the  Prime 
Minister,  Pitt,  were  all  full  of  the  enemy's  fleet,  and  as  I 
am  now  set  up  for  a  conjurer,  and  God  knows  they  will 
very  soon  find  out  I  am  far  from  being  one,  I  was  asked 
my  opinion,  against  my  inclination,  for  if  I  make  one 
wrong  guess  the  charm  will  be  broken;  but  this  I  ventured 
without  any  fear,  that  if  Calder  got  close  alongside  their 
twenty-seven  or  twenty-eight  sail,  that  by  the  time  the 
enemy  had  beaten  our  fleet  soundly,  they  would  do  us  no 
harm  this  year. 

Though  Nelson  did  not  and  could  not  say  all 
that  was  in  his  mind,  we  can  read  between  the 
lines  that  he  had  no  use  for  the  theories  of  min- 
isters, and  would  obviously  have  liked  to  have 
said  in  brutal  English,  "Here  I  am,  gentlemen, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  209 

do  not  encumber  me  with  your  departmental 
jargon  of  palpable  nothings.  You  continue  to 
trust  in  Providence;  give  me  your  untrammelled 
instructions  as  to  what  you  wish  me  to  do,  and 
leave  the  rest  to  me."  Here  is  another  letter  from 
Lord  Radstock: 

No  official  news  has  been  received  from  Lord  Nelson 
since  July  27th.  He  then  hinted  that  he  might  go  to  Ire- 
land; nevertheless,  we  have  no  tidings  of  him  on  that 
coast.  I  confess  I  begin  to  be  fearful  that  he  has  worried 
his  mind  up  to  that  pitch,  that  he  cannot  bear  the  idea 
of  showing  himself  again  to  the  world  until  he  shall  have 
struck  some  blow,  and  that  it  is  this  hope  that  is  now 
making  him  run  about,  half  frantic,  in  quest  of  adventure. 
That  such  unparalleled  perseverance  and  true  valour  should 
thus  evaporate  in  air  is  truly  melancholy. 

What  balderdash  to  write  about  a  man  ablaze 
with  reasoning  energy  and  genius  of  the  highest 
order!  The  noble  Lord  is  disillusioned  on  his 
arrival  in  Portsmouth,  and  writes  again  in  another 
strain:  "He  [Nelson]  was  received  in  town  almost 
as  a  conqueror,  and  was  followed  round  by  the 
people  with  huzzas.  So  much  for  a  great  and 
good  name  most  nobly  and  deservedly  acquired!" 
The  previous  letter  indicates  the  mind  of  a  fire- 
side colossus,  and  shows  how  dangerously  a  big 
man's  reputation  may  be  at  the  mercy  of  a  little 
one  or  a  coterie  of  them.  One  can  only  describe 
them  as  portentous  human  snipes,  whose  aggres- 
sive mediocrity  spreads  like  an  attack  of  infectious 
fever,  until  the  awful  will  of  Heaven,  for  the  safety 
14 


210      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

of  humanity,  lays  hands  on  their  power  for  mis- 
chief. The  popularity  of  a  public  servant  is 
always  in  danger  of  a  tragical  end  if  he  lives  long 
enough.  One  slip  of  inevitable  misfortune  seals 
his  doom  when  the  pendulum  swings  against  him. 
And  it  is  generally  brought  by  a  rhetorical  smiling 
Judas  who  can  sway  a  capricious  public.  The 
more  distinguished  a  popular  man  may  be,  the 
greater  is  the  danger  that  the  fame  and  reputation 
for  which  he  strove  may  be  swiftly  laid  low. 

Who  has  lived  as  long  as  he  chose? 
Who  so  confident  as  to  defy 
Time,  the  f ellest  of  mortals'  foes  ? 
Joints  in  his  armour  who  can  spy? 
Where's  the  foot  will  not  flinch  or  fly? 
Where's  the  heart  that  aspires  the  fray  ? 
His  battle  wager  'tis  vain  to  try — 
Everything  passes,  passes  away. 

The  gallant  and  strenuous  patriot  whose  fame 
will  pass  on  to  distant  ages  is  now  summoned  to 
fulfil  his  destiny.  He  owns  that  he  needs  one 
more  rest,  but  his  "duty  was  to  go  forth."  He 
"expected  to  lay  his  weary  bones  quiet  for  the 
winter,"  but  he  is  "proud  of  the  call,"  and  all 
gallant  hearts  were  proud  to  own  him  as  their 
chieftain.  He  bargains  for  one  of  the  Victory  s 
anchors  to  be  at  the  bows  before  he  arrives  at 
Portsmouth.  All  his  belongings  are  sent  off  on 
the  5th  October.  Lord  Barham,  an  aged  man  of 
eighty-two  years,  asks  him  with  pride  to  select 
his  own  officers.    "Choose  yourself,   my  Lord. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  211 

The  same  spirit  actuates  the  whole  profession; 
you  cannot  choose  wrong."  He  told  the  Cabinet 
what  was  wanted  in  the  "annihilation  of  the 
enemy,"  and  that  "only  numbers  could  annihi- 
late"— presumably  ships  and  men.  The  conversa- 
tions he  had  with  the  authorities  and  the  spoken 
words  and  letters  sent  to  his  friends  are  ablaze 
with  inspiring,  sharp-cut  sentences.  But  those 
who  had  intimate  knowledge  of  his  tender  side 
felt  he  was  ill  at  ease,  and  not  free  from  heartache 
at  the  prospect  of  parting.  I  think,  in  connec- 
tion with  this,  Lady  Hamilton's  version  of  what 
passed  between  them  when  he  was  walking  the 
"quarterdeck"  in  his  garden  may  be  true  in  sub- 
stance, as  he  was  still  madly  in  love  with  her,  and 
she  knew  how  to  wheedle  him  into  a  conversation 
and  to  use  words  that  might  serve  a  useful  pur- 
pose if  need  be.  Nor  were  her  scruples  so  delicate 
as  to  prevent  suitable  additions  being  made  to 
suit  any  emergency  that  might  occur. 

Her  account  is  that  she  saw  he  was  looking 
downcast,  and  she  told  him  so.  He  smiled,  and 
then  said: -"No,  I  am  as  happy  as  possible";  he 
was  surrounded  by  his  family,  his  health  was 
better  since  he  had  "been  on  shore,  and  he  would 
not  give  sixpence  to  call  the  King  his  uncle." 
She  replied  that  she  did  not  believe  him,  that  she 
knew  he  was  longing  to  get  at  the  combined  fleets, 
that  he  considered  them  as  his  property,  that  he 
would  be  miserable  if  any  man  but  himself  did 
the  business,  and  that  he  ought  to  have  them  as 


212       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

the  price  and  reward  of  his  two  years'  long  watch- 
ing and  his  hard  chase.  "Nelson,"  said  she, 
"however  we  may  lament  your  absence,  offer 
your  services;  they  will  be  accepted,  and  you  will 
gain  a  quiet  heart  by  it;  you  will  have  a  glorious 
victory,  and  then  you  may  return  here  and  be 
happy."  He  looked  at  her  with  tears  in  his  eyes, 
and  said:  "Brave  Emma!  Good  Emma!  If 
there  were  more  Emmas,  there  would  be  more 
Nelsons." 

It  puts  a  heavy  strain  upon  our  credulity  to 
believe  that  such  words  were  ever  used  by  Nelson, 
even  though  we  know  that  he  was  so  hopelessly 
enamoured  of  this  untamed  creature.  That  he 
needed  to  be  coaxed  into  offering  his  services  or 
that  he  ever  demurred  at  accepting  the  distin- 
guished honours  the  Government  had  conferred 
upon  him  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  Emma's 
efforts  at  triumphant  self-glorification  and  easy 
dramatic  fibbing.  She  was  ever  striving  to  thrust 
her  patriotic  ardour  forward  in  some  vulgar  form 
or  other,  and  this  occasion  gave  her  a  chance  that 
could  not  be  resisted.  The  day  before  Nelson's 
departure  for  Portsmouth  the  scalding  tears  flowed 
from  her  eyes  continuously,  she  could  neither 
eat  nor  drink,  and  her  lapses  into  swooning  at 
the  table  were  terrible.  These  performances  do 
not  bear  out  the  tale  of  Nelson's  spontaneous  and 
gushing  outburst  in  the  garden  at  Merton  of  her 
bravery  and  goodness  in  urging  him  to  "go  forth." 
It  is  possible  that  her  resolution  and  fortitude 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  213 

could  not  stand  the  responsibility  of  pressing  him 
to  undertake  a  task  that  might  be  fatal  to  himself 
and  foredoomed  to  failure.  In  that  case  she  does 
not  bear  herself  like  a  heroine,  and  strengthens 
the  suspicion,  as  we  have  said,  that  the  story  of 
pleading  with  Nelson  to  offer  his  services  is  an 
impudent  fabrication.  Minto  says  that  the  tears 
and  swooning  are  a  strange  picture,  and  assures  him 
as  before  that  nothing  can  be  more  pure  and 
ardent  than  this  flame;  and  she  might  have  added 
that  they  had  in  reality  exchanged  souls. 

Napoleon,  in  conversing  on  one  occasion  with 
his  brother  Lucien  about  one  of  his  love  affairs, 
said  that  "  Madame  Walewska's  soul  was  as  beau- 
tiful as  her  face.,,  In  nearly  all  his  letters  to 
Lady  Hamilton,  Nelson  plunged  into  expressions 
of  love  abandonment  only  different  from  those 
sent  by  Napoleon  to  Josephine  when  he  was  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  army  of  Italy.  Neither 
of  these  extraordinary  men  could  do  anything  by 
halves,  and  we  are  not  left  in  doubt  as  to  the 
seventh  heaven  of  happiness  it  would  have  been 
to  the  less  flowery-worded  sailor  had  he  been 
given  the  least  encouragement  to  pour  out  his 
adoration  of  Emma's  goodness  and  beauty.  He 
would  have  excelled  Napoleon's  picture  of  Madame 
Walewska.  Amidst  the  many  cares  that  sur- 
rounded these  last  active  days,  when  the  dock- 
yards were  humming  with  the  work  of  getting  his 
ships  refitted  so  that  they  might  be  put  quickly 
into  commission,   he  grudged   every  moment  of 


214      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

forced  separation  from  her  while  he  was  in  con- 
sultation with  the  Government  and  attending  to 
his  own  private  preparations,  which  were  sedu- 
lously attended  to.  Nothing  of  moment  seems  to 
have  been  left  to  chance.  Not  even  the  coffin 
that  Captain  Hallowell  had  given  him  was  over- 
looked, for  he  called  to  give  instructions  to  the 
people  who  had  it  in  safe  keeping,  and  gave  them 
instructions  to  have  the  history  of  it  engraved  on 
the  lid,  as  he  might  want  it  on  his  return,  which 
is  further  evidence  that  he  was  permanently 
impressed  with  the  fate  that  awaited  him. 

The  story  of  this  strange  incident  of  the  coffin 
is  this:  After  the  battle  of  the  Nile  a  portion  of 
the  Orient's  mainmast  was  drifting  about,  and 
was  picked  up  by  order  of  Captain  Hallowell  of 
the  Szviftsure,  who  had  it  made  into  a  coffin.  It 
was  handsomely  finished,  and  sent  to  Admiral 
Nelson  with  the  following  letter: 

Sir, — I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  presenting  you  a  coffin 
made  from  the  mainmast  of  Orient,  that  when  you  have 
finished  your  military  career  in  this  world,  you  may  be 
buried  in  one  of  your  trophies.  But  that  that  period  may  be 
far  distant  is  the  earnest  wish  of  your  sincere  friend,  Ben- 
jamin Hallowell. 

Nelson  received  the  weird  gift  in  good  spirits, 
and  had  it  placed  in  his  cabin.  It  was  hardly  a 
pleasant  piece  of  furniture  for  his  visitors  to  be 
confronted  with,  so  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  have 
it  put  below  until  it  was  required.     A  few  more 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  215 

raging  battles,  and  a  few  more  years  of  momentous 
anxieties,  and  the  prodigious  hero  was  to  become 
its  occupant.  It  seems  to  have  been  landed  and 
put  in  charge  of  a  firm  of  upholsterers. 

Before  leaving  his  home  he  went  to  the  bedside 
where  his  child  Horatia  lay  sleeping,  and  offered 
up  a  heart-stirring  prayer  that  those  who  loved 
him  should  be  a  guardian  spirit  to  her,  and  that 
the  God  he  believed  in  should  have  her  in  His  holy 
keeping.  On  the  13  th  September,  1805,  he  writes 
in  his  private  diary: 

At  half-past  ten,  drove  from  dear,  dear  Merton,  where 
I  left  all  which  I  hold  dear  in  this  world,  to  go  to  serve  my 
King  and  country.  May  the  great  God  whom  I  adore 
enable  me  to  fulfil  the  expectations  of  my  country;  and 
if  it  is  His  good  pleasure  that  I  should  return,  my  thanks 
will  never  cease  being  offered  up  to  the  throne  of  His 
mercy.  If  it  is  good  Providence  to  cut  short  my  days 
upon  earth,  I  bow  with  the  greatest  submission,  relying 
that  He  will  protect  those  so  dear  to  me  that  I  may  leave 
behind.     His  will  be  done.     Amen,  Amen. 

No  more  simple,  fervent,  and  touching  appeal 
and  resignation  to  the  will  of  Him  Who  governs 
all  things  has  been  seen  in  the  English  language. 
It  is  quite  unorthodox  in  its  construction,  and 
impresses  us  with  the  idea  that  he  is  already  real- 
izing the  bitterness  of  death,  and  that  he  is  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  Mystery,  speaking  to  his 
own  parting  soul.  The  desire  to  live  is  there, 
but  he  does  not  ignore  the  almost  unutterable 
submission  of  "Thy  will  be  done." 


216      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

XIII 

Nelson  joined  the  Victory  at  Portsmouth  on 
the  morning  of  the  14th  September,  and  met  with 
a  great  public  ovation.  He  tells  Captain  Hardy, 
as  he  was  being  rowed  to  the  Victory ',  that  he  had 
"their  huzzas  when  he  landed'*  (after  his  prolonged 
period  in  commission),  "but  now,"  he  proudly 
remarked,  "I  have  their  hearts."  His  send-off 
was  magnificent.  The  contagious  flow  of  tears, 
the  shouting  of  blessings,  and  the  fervent  petitions 
that  the  God  of  battles  should  give  him  the  victory 
over  the  enemies  of  human  suffering  and  liberty 
were  symptoms  of  admiration  and  gratitude  which 
went  hot  into  his  blood  as  he  sat  in  his  barge,  the 
object  of  reverence.  And  with  a  calm  air  of  con- 
scious power  he  acknowledged  the  honour  that 
was  showered  upon  him  by  baring  his  head  and 
bowing  gracefully  his  thanks.  It  was  manifestly 
his  day  of  paradise,  and  with  the  plaudits  still 
ringing  in  his  ears  the  Victory's  anchor  was  weighed 
on  the  following  day,  and  he  sailed  from  St.  Helen's 
Roads  to  the  great  conflict  and  victory  for  which 
he  panted,  and  to  the  doom  that  awaited  him. 

He  experienced  foul  winds  until  he  passed  Cape 
Finisterre,  and  on  the  28th  September  he  joined 
the  fleet  of  twenty-nine  of  the  line.  The  29th 
September  was  the  anniversary  of  his  forty-seventh 
year.     He  says: 

The  reception  I  met  with  on  joining  the  fleet  caused  the 
sweetest  sensation  of  my  life.     The  officers  who  came  on 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  217 

board  to  welcome  my  return  forgot  my  rank  as  commander- 
in-chief  in  the  enthusiasm  with  which  they  greeted  me.  As 
soon  as  these  emotions  were  past,  I  laid  before  them  the 
plan  I  had  previously  arranged  for  attacking  the  enemy; 
and  it  was  not  only  my  pleasure  to  find  it  generally  ap- 
proved, but  clearly  perceived  and  understood. 

In  a  further  communication  he  explains  to  them 
the  "Nelson  touch,'*  and  all  agree  that  it  must 
succeed,  and  that  he  is  surrounded  with  friends. 
Then  he  adds:  "Some  may  be  Judas's,  but  the 
majority  are  certainly  pleased  at  the  prospect  of 
my  commanding  them." 

These  are  joyous  days  for  him,  which  are  marked 
by  the  absence  of  any  recorded  misgivings.  His 
mind  is  full  of  making  preparations  in  every  detail 
to  cope  with  the  advent  of  Villeneuve  from  Cadiz 
and  for  the  plan  of  attack,  of  which  a  long  memo- 
randum was  circulated  to  the  fleet.  He  had 
planned  the  form  of  attack  at  Trafalgar  during 
his  stay  at  home,  and  some  time  before  leaving 
Merton  he  confided  it  to  Lord  Sidmouth.  He 
told  him  "that  Rodney  broke  the  enemy's  line 
in  one  place,  and  that  he  would  break  it  in  two." 
One  of  the  Nelson  "touches"  was  to  "close  with 
a  Frenchman,  and  to  out-manoeuvre  a  Russian," 
and  this  method  of  terrific  onslaught  was  to  be 
one  of  the  devices  that  he  had  in  store  for  the 
French  at  Trafalgar,  and  which  ended  fatally  for 
himself.  But  it  gave  the  enemy  a  staggering  blow, 
from  which  they  never  recovered  so  long  as  the 
action  lasted.     In  the  General  Orders  he  says: 


218      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

"Captains  are  to  look  to  their  particular  line  as  a 
rallying  point,  but  in  case  signals  cannot  be  seen 
or  clearly  understood,  no  captain  can  do  wrong  if 
he  places  his  ship  alongside  that  of  an  enemy." 

The  feeling  against  Sir  Robert  Calder  for  not 
having  beaten  or  forced  another  battle  on  the 
allied  fleets  in  July  did  not  abate.  The  public 
were  out  for  impeachment,  and  the  Government 
did  nothing  to  discourage  it;  and  when  Nelson 
was  on  the  point  of  leaving  England  the  First 
Lord  instructed  him  to  convey  to  Calder  the  Gov- 
ernment's condemnation  of  his  evident  negligence 
or  incapacity.  They  gave  him  permission  to 
ask  for  the  inquiry,  but  should  he  not  do  so,  it 
would  be  ordered.  Nelson  wrote  to  Barham  that 
he  had  delivered  the  message  to  Sir  Robert,  and 
that  it  would  doubtless  give  his  Lordship  pleasure 
to  learn  that  an  inquiry  was  just  what  the  Vice- 
Admiral  was  anxious  to  have,  and  that  he  had 
already  sent  a  letter  by  the  Nautilus  to  say  so, 
but  that  he  (Nelson)  had  detained  it.  Nelson, 
in  his  goodness  of  heart,  urged  Sir  Robert  to  re- 
main until  after  the  action,  the  result  of  which 
would  inevitably  change  the  feeling  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  public  in  his  favour,  and  he  could 
then,  without  any  fear,  demand  an  inquiry.  Sir 
Robert  was  so  crushed  with  the  charge  hanging 
over  him,  that  he  insisted  on  being  allowed  to  pro- 
ceed to  England  at  once,  and  Nelson,  to  ease  the 
humiliation  and  suffering  he  was  passing  through, 
sent  him  off  in  his  ninety-gun  ship,  instead  of  a 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  219 

frigate.  The  inquiry  was  held  in  due  course,  and 
judgment  given  against  him.  The  finding  is,  in 
our  opinion,  based  more  on  prejudice  than  on  any 
fault  he  committed,  and  as  to  "committing  an 
error  of  judgment,"  it  is  always  difficult  to  know 
what  is  an  error  of  judgment  in  circumstances 
such  as  he  was  confronted  with.  In  any  case,  it 
is  evident  that  the  Government  were  terrified  of 
the  effect  that  public  opinion  would  have  on  them- 
selves if  they  failed  to  take  steps  to  appease  it. 
We  think  the  Government  would  have  been  serv- 
ing their  country  better  by  keeping  this  unfor- 
tunate officer  in  active  service  when  its  fleet  was 
on  the  verge  of  a  life-or-death  struggle  for  naval 
supremacy  than  by  dispensing  with  his  services, 
which  they  had  thought  fit  to  retain  from  July 
to  October.  Nelson's  attitude  was  the  more 
patriotic  and  noble,  and  under  such  circumstances 
the  verdict,  however  mild,  was  bound  to  be  given 
against  the  man  whose  heart  they  had  broken 
because  they  were  afraid  of  public  opinion.  Nel- 
son was  a  better  judge  than  they.  Discreet 
reprimand,  combined  with  a  few  kindly  words  of 
encouragement,  was  the  proper  course  at  such  a 
time,  when  every  man  and  ship  was  so  essential. 

On  a  previous  occasion,  when  a  "seventy-four" 
had  stranded,  the  officer  whose  skill  and  efforts 
had  refloated  her  was  told  by  Nelson  that  he  had 
spoken  favourably  of  him  to  the  Admiralty.  The 
officer  showed  in  suitable  terms  his  gratitude,  but 
added  that  he  did  not  regard  what  he  had  done 


220      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

as  meriting  any  notice  or  praise.  The  Admiral 
pointed  out  that  a  battle  might  easily  be  lost  by 
the  absence  of  a  line-of-battle  ship.  When  Nelson 
conveyed  the  ill-considered  and  stupid  instruc- 
tions of  the  Government  to  Sir  Robert  Calder  to 
return  home  to  be  court-martialled,  and  the  latter 
replied  that  his  letter  "to  do  so  cut  him  to  the 
soul  and  that  his  heart  was  broken,"  Nelson  was 
so  overcome  with  sympathy  for  Calder  that  he 
sacrificed  his  own  opinions  already  expressed,  and 
also  took  the  risk  of  bringing  upon  himself  the 
displeasure  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Navy  by 
giving  the  unfortunate  man  permission  to  proceed 
home  in  a  vessel  that  would  have  been  so  valuable 
an  asset  to  his  fleet.  This  worthy  act,  had  he 
lived  and  the  battle  of  Trafalgar  been  drawn  or 
lost,  might  have  laid  him  open  to  impeachment. 
Nelson's  fine  courage  and  sense  of  proportion 
when  he  thought  an  injustice  or  undue  severity 
was  being  imposed  was  never  allowed  to  be  trifled 
with  by  any  official,  no  matter  how  high  or  subor- 
dinate his  position  might  be,  and  his  contempt  for 
men  whom  he  knew  were  miserable  cocksparrow 
amateurs  was  openly  avowed. 

Whatever  the  consequences,  he  would  have 
sooner  lost  a  victory  than  have  gained  one  by 
lending  himself  to  an  act  that  was  to  injure  or 
break  his  brother  in  arms.  Calder  left  the  fleet 
a  few  days  before  the  action,  and  when  it  began 
Nelson  remarked  to  Hardy:  "What  would  poor 
Sir  Robert  Calder  give  to  be  with  us  now!"     Even 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  221 

on  the  eve  of  a  great  encounter  the  stress  of  pre- 
paration did  not  dim  his  sympathy  for  the  afflicted 
man,  who,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  had  allowed 
envy  to  rule  his  conduct  towards  him.  After  the 
battle  of  St.  Vincent,  for  instance,  Calder,  in 
conversation  with  Jervis,  criticized  Nelson's  action 
in  departing  from  the  plan  of  attack  laid  down  by 
the  Admiral.  Jervis  admitted  it  to  be  a  breach,  ■ 
and  added,  "If  ever  Calder  did  the  same  thing  under 
similar  circumstances,  he  would  forgive  him." 

Nelson  knew  Calder  was  envious  of  his  growing 
fame,  but  this  did  not  prevent  him  from  acting 
as  though  he  had  always  been  a  loyal  friend.  On 
the  morning  of  the  19th  October,  1805,  the  signal 
was  passed  from  ship  to  ship  acting  as  lookouts 
to  the  main  fleet  that  the  combined  fleet  were 
putting  to  sea,  and  it  was  soon  discovered  that 
their  force  consisted  of  eighteen  French  line-of- 
battle  ships,  seven  large  frigates,  and  two  brigs. 
The  Spanish  numbered  fifteen  sail  of  the  line. 
The  British  had  twenty-seven  sail  of  the  line  and 
four  frigates,  so  that  Nelson  was  outnumbered 
by  six  of  the  line,  three  frigates,  and  two  brigs. 
The  whole  of  the  allied  fleet  did  not  get  clear  of 
the  port  until  the  20th.  The  commander-in-chief 
was  Villeneuve,  and  his  obvious  intention  was  to 
get  the  Straits  open  and,  by  a  cunning  evasion  of 
the  British  fleet,  make  a  dash  through.  His  elu- 
sive tactics  had  hitherto  been  skilfully  performed, 
but  the  British  Admiral,  always  on  the  alert, 
anticipated  that  an  effort  would  again  be  made 


222      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

to  cheat  him  of  the  yearning  hope  of  his  heart, 
and  had  mentally  arranged  how  every  contingency 
should  be  coped  with  to  prevent  escape  and  to 
get  to  grips  with  the  enemy.  "I  will  give  them 
such  a  shaking  as  they  never  before  experienced,,, 
and  at  least  he  was  prepared  to  lay  down  his  life 
in  the  attempt. 

It  is  pretty  certain  that,  after  all  his  ships  had 
got  into  the  open  sea,  Villeneuve's  intention  was 
to  see  how  the  land  lay  as  to  the  British  strength, 
and  his  manoeuvring  indicated  that  instructions 
had  been  given  to  hoodwink  the  British  and  slip 
through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar;  but  seeing  that 
the  entrance  was  cut  off  for  the  moment,  he  headed 
westward,  possibly  to  mislead,  but  always  with 
the  intention  of  getting  into  the  Mediterranean. 
When  this  information  was  signalled  by  Black- 
wood, instructions  were  sent  back  to  him  that  the 
Admiral  relied  on  the  enemy  being  kept  in  sight. 
Here  is  a  letter  to  Lady  Hamilton,  dated  the  19th 
October,  1805: 

Cadiz,  bearing  E.SE.  50  miles. 
My  dearest  beloved  Emma:  the  dear  friend  of  my 
bosom, — The  signal  has  been  made  that  the  enemy's 
combined  fleet  are  coming  out  of  port.  We  have  very 
little  wind,  so  that  I  have  no  hopes  of  seeing  them  before 
to-morrow.  May  the  God  of  battles  crown  my  endeavours 
with  success;  at  all  events,  I  will  take  care  that  my  name 
shall  ever  be  most  dear  to  you  and  Horatia,  both  of  whom 
I  love  as  much  as  my  own  life.  And  as  my  last  writing 
before  the  battle  will  be  to  you,  so  I  hope  in  God  that  I 
shall  live  to  finish  my  letter  after  the  battle.  May  Heaven 
bless  you,  prays  your 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  223 

This  was  found  unsigned  on  his  desk.  These  are 
the  last  lines  he  wrote  to  the  woman  he  called  his 
"wife  in  the  sight  of  God."  There  is  none  of  the 
robust  assurance  of  blazing  deeds  that  he  has  in 
store  for  the  enemy  which  characterize  some  of 
his  earlier  letters  to  Emma,  nor  is  there  any  crav- 
ing for  continued  existence  or  for  extinction. 
But  who  can  read  this  melancholy  farewell  with- 
out being  impressed  with  the  feeling  that  there  is 
a  subdued  restraint  to  avoid  uttering  his  thoughts 
on  inevitable  fate  and  eternal  sleep,  lest  it  gives 
anxiety  and  disheartens  the  woman  he  loved  so 
well? 

On  the  same  day  he  wrote  an  affectionate  letter 
to  his  daughter,  which  is  clearly  intended  as  a 
supplementary  outpouring  of  a  full  heart  to  the 
mother  whom  he  knew  would  have  to  read  it.  The 
tone  and  wording  are  what  a  father  might  have 
written  to  a  girl  of  fifteen  instead  of  five.  There 
is  a  complete  absence  of  those  dainty,  playful 
touches  that  would  delight  a  child  of  her  age.  In 
reality,  it  rather  points  to  the  idea  that  it  was 
intended  not  only  as  a  further  farewell  to  mother 
and  child,  but  as  an  historical  epistle  and  a  legacy 
to  Horatia  which  she  would  read  in  other  days  in 
connection  with  the  great  battle  in  which  he  was  to 
be  engaged  only  a  few  hours  after  he  had  written  it. 

My  dearest  Angel, — I  was  made  happy  by  the  pleasure 
of  receiving  your  letter  of  September  the  19th,  and  I  rejoice 
to  hear  you  are  so  very  good  a  girl,  and  love  my  dear  Lady 
Hamilton,  who  most  dearly  loves  you.     Give  her  a  kiss 


224      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

for  me.  The  combined  fleets  of  the  enemy  are  now  re- 
ported to  be  coming  out  of  Cadiz;  and  therefore  I  answer 
your  letter,  my  dearest  Horatia,  to  mark  to  you  that  you 
are  ever  uppermost  in  my  thoughts.  I  shall  be  sure  of 
your  prayers  for  my  safety,  conquest,  and  speedy  return 
to  dear  Merton  and  our  dearest  good  Lady  Hamilton. 

Receive,  my  dearest  Horatia,  the  affectionate  blessing 
of  your  Father, 

Nelson  and  Bronte. 

The  importunities  of  Horatia's  mother  were 
continuously  being  forced  upon  Nelson  in  one 
way  or  another,  but  he  seems  to  have  stood  firm, 
in  an  apologetic  way,  to  the  instructions  laid  down 
by  himself,  that  no  women  were  to  go  to  sea 
aboard  his  ship;  for,  having  been  a  party  to  the 
embargo,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  him 
to  make  her  an  exception.  He  anticipates,  as 
her  other  lovers  had  done,  that  she  can  be  very 
angry,  like  Horatia,  when  she  cannot  have  her 
own  way,  but  he  soothingly  says  that  he  knows  his 
own  dear  Emma,  if  she  applies  her  reason,  will 
see  that  he  is  right.  He  playfully  adds  an  adden- 
dum that  " Horatia  is  like  her  mother,  she  will 
have  her  own  way,  or  kick  up  the  devil  of  a  dust." 
He  reminds  Emma  that  she  is  a  "sharer  of  his 
glory,"  which  settles  the  question  of  her  being 
allowed  to  sail  with  him,  and  encounter  the  heavy 
gales  and  liquid  hills  that  are  experienced  off  Tou- 
lon week  after  week.  He  warns  the  lady  that  it 
would  kill  her  and  himself  to  witness  it.  Emma 
was  too  devoted  to  all  the  pleasures  ashore  to 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  225 

risk  losing  her  life  in  any  such  uncomfortable 
fashion  at  sea,  so  the  project  was  abandoned,  if 
it  was  ever  seriously  contemplated. 

This  astute  actress  knew  where  to  touch  Nelson's 
weak  spot,  and  that  it  would  send  him  into  a  frenzy 
of  love  to  think  of  her  yearning  to  be  beside  him. 
She  would  know  that  the  rules  of  the  Service  pro- 
hibited, except  under  special  circumstances,  even 
the  highest  in  rank  from  having  their  wives  sail 
with  them,  and  that  the  rule  would  apply  more 
rigidly  to  herself,  who  was  not  Nelson's  wife. 
She  knew,  in  fact,  that  her  request  would  flatter 
him,  and  that  she  would  be  compensated  by  re- 
ceiving a  whirlwind  of  devotion  in  reply.  After 
the  Gulf  of  Lyons  days,  no  further  request  appears 
to  have  been  made  of  that  kind. 

The  combined  fleets  had  been  dodging  each 
other  on  the  20th,  light  westerly  winds  and  calms 
prevailing.  At  daylight  on  the  21st  the  belliger- 
ent fleets  were  within  twelve  miles  of  each  other. 
Nelson  was  on  deck  early,  and  at  7.40  a.m.  made 
the  signal  "To  form  the  order  of  sailing,"  and 
"To  prepare  for  battle."  Then  the  signal  was 
made  to  "Bear  up,"  the  Victory  and  Royal  Sover- 
eign leading  the  way  in  two  lines;  Nelson  took 
the  weather  line  with  his  ships,  and  the  other 
division  followed,  but,  the  wind  being  light,  many 
had  barely  steerage  way.  Fourteen  vessels  fol- 
lowed Collingwood,  who  was  to  attack  the  enemy's 
rear,  while  Nelson  slashed  into  the  van  and  centre. 
Villeneuve,  seeing  by  the  British  formation  that 
15 


226      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

his  number  was  up  and  that  he  would  have  to  give 
battle,  manoeuvred  to  keep  Cadiz  open,  which  was 
about  twenty  miles  N.E.  of  him,  but  the  wind, 
being  light,  made  it  as  difficult  for  the  French 
Commander-in-Chief  to  carry  out  the  disposition 
as  it  was  for  the  quick-witted  British  Commander 
to  prevent  it.  Hence  the  development  was  a 
lazy  process,  and  prevented,  as  varying  circum- 
stances always  do,  any  rigid  plan  being  adhered  to. 
Had  there  been  a  fresh  breeze  before  the  battle 
commenced,  the  chances  are  that  the  French  would 
have  secured  a  position  that  would  have  enabled 
more  of  the  crippled  ships  to  get  into  Cadiz,  but 
even  this  is  doubtful,  as  only  a  fluke  of  wind  could 
have  saved  them  from  the  strategy  of  the  British 
Commander-in-Chief  before  the  fighting  began. 
Between  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock  on  the  21st 
October  every  humanly  possible,  detailed  arrange- 
ment had  been  completed.  Each  captain  knew 
that,  so  far  as  it  was  possible,  he  was  to  follow 
where  his  admiral  and  vice-admiral  led.  The 
spirits  of  all  those  who  manned  the  fleet  were 
high  of  hope,  and  the  inspiring  spirit  said  he  could 
do  no  more. 

Nelson  then  went  to  his  cabin  and  on  his  knees 
wrote  a  prayer  that  throbbed  and  will  continue 
to  throb  through  the  universe.  It  exhales  the 
spirit  of  bravery,  and  triumphant  assurance  of 
the  eternal  justice  of  the  cause  for  which  he  is 
about  to  sacrifice  himself,  for  a  sombre  document 
it  is;  but  the  soul  that  is  in  it  is  imperishable, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  227 

and  who  can  peruse  it  without  vividly  picturing 
the  writer  kneeling  before  the  Omnipotent,  plead- 
ing for  his  country's  cause,  and  offering  himself 
piously  as  a  willing  sacrifice ! 

May  the  great  God,  whom  I  worship,  grant  to  my  coun- 
try, and  for  the  benefit  of  Europe  in  general,  a  great  and 
glorious  victory,  and  may  no  misconduct  in  any  one  tar- 
nish it ;  and  may  humanity,  after  victory,  be  the  predomi- 
nant feature  in  the  British  fleet.  For  myself  individually, 
I  commit  my  life  to  Him  that  made  me;  and  may  His 
blessing  alight  on  my  endeavours  for  serving  my  country 
faithfully.  To  Him  I  resign  myself  and  the  just  cause  which 
is  entrusted  to  me  to  defend.    Amen,  Amen,  Amen. 

Then,  as  though  apprehension  of  the  inevitable 
passing  was  growing,  the  thought  of  the  woman 
who  is  the  mother  of  his  child,  and  for  whom  he 
had  an  unquenchable  love,  blinds  him  to  all  sense 
of  propriety.  It  puts  a  severe  strain  on  our  im- 
agination to  realize  how  a  man  could  composedly 
write  such  a  request  on  the  verge  of  the  greatest 
naval  conflict  in  history.  It  is  dated  "21st  of 
October,  1805,  in  sight  of  the  combined  fleets  of 
France  and  Spain,  distant  ten  miles": — 

Whereas  the  eminent  services  of  Emma  Hamilton,  widow 
of  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  William  Hamilton,  have  been 
of  the  very  greatest  service  to  my  King  and  country  to 
my  knowledge,  without  ever  receiving  any  reward  from 
either  our  King  and  country;  First,  that  she  obtained 
the  King  of  Spain's  letter,  in  1796,  to  his  brother,  the  King 
of  Naples,  acquainting  him  of  his  intention  to  declare  war 
against  England,  from  which  letter  the  Ministry  sent  our 


228      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

orders  to  the  then  Sir  John  Jervis,  to  strike  a  stroke,  if 
opportunity  offered,  against  either  the  arsenals  of  Spain 
or  her  fleets.  That  neither  of  these  was  done  is  not  the 
fault  of  Lady  Hamilton;  the  opportunity  might  have  been 
offered.  Secondly:  The  British  fleet  under  my  command 
could  never  have  returned  the  second  time  to  Egypt,  had 
not  Lady  Hamilton's  influence  with  the  Queen  of  Naples 
caused  letters  to  be  wrote  to  the  Governor  of  Syracuse, 
that  he  was  to  encourage  the  fleets  being  supplied  with 
everything,  should  they  put  into  any  port  in  Sicily.  We 
put  into  Syracuse,  received  every  supply;  went  to  Egypt, 
and  destroyed  the  French  fleet.  Could  I  have  rewarded 
these  services,  I  would  not  now  call  upon  my  country; 
but  as  that  has  not  been  in  my  power,  I  leave  Emma, 
Lady  Hamilton,  therefore  a  legacy  to  my  King  and  coun- 
try, that  they  will  give  her  an  ample  provision  to  maintain 
her  rank  in  life.  I  also  leave  to  the  beneficence  of  my 
country  my  adopted  daughter,  Horatia  Nelson  Thompson; 
and  I  desire  she  will  use  in  future  the  name  of  Nelson 
only.  These  are  the  only  favours  I  ask  of  my  King  and 
country  at  this  moment  when  I  am  going  to  fight  their 
battle.  May  God  bless  my  King  and  country,  and  all 
those  I  hold  dear!  My  relations,  it  is  needless  to  mention, 
will,  of  course,  be  amply  provided  for. 

Nelson  and  Bronte. 
Witness, 

Henry  Blackwood. 

T.  M.  Hardy. 

It  is  of  little  importance  whether  this  codicil 
was  written  at  the  same  time  as  the  prayer  or  a 
couple  of  hours  before;  that  neither  adds  to  nor 
detracts  from  the  object  of  it.  No  definite  opin- 
ion of  the  time  is  given.  Blackwood  and  Hardy, 
as  witnesses,  would  know.     In  any  case  it  is  an 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  229 

extraordinary  document,  and  indicates  unusual 
mental  control  of  which  few  human  beings  are 
possessed.  His  mind  must  have  been  saturated 
with  thoughts  of  the  woman  when  the  great  battle 
was  within  a  few  minutes  of  commencing.  Early 
in  the  morning,  when  he  was  walking  the  poop, 
and  cabin  fixings  and  odds  and  ends  were  being 
removed,  he  gave  stern  instructions  to  "take  care 
of  his  guardian  angel,"  meaning  her  portrait, 
which  he  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  mascot  to  him. 
He  also  wore  a  miniature  of  her  next  his  heart. 
Unless  Captain  Hardy  and  Captain  Blackwood 
and  others  to  whom  he  confided  his  love  potions 
were  different  from  the  hearty,  unconventional 
seamen  of  the  writer's  early  sea  life,  a  banquet 
of  interesting  epithets  could  have  been  left  to  us 
which  might  have  shocked  the  severely  decorous 
portion  of  a  public  who  assume  a  monopoly  of 
inherent  grace  but  do  not  understand  the  delight- 
ful simple  dialect  of  the  old-time  sailor-men. 

There  can  be  small  doubt  that  Nelson's  com- 
rades had  many  a  joke  in  private  about  his  weird 
and  to  them  unnecessarily  troublesome  love  wail- 
ings,  which  would  be  all  the  more  irksome  when 
they  and  he  had  serious  business  in  hand.  Poor 
Sir  Thomas  Troubridge  appears  to  have  been  the 
only  one  to  have  dealt  frankly  with  him  about 
carrying  his  infatuation  to  such  lengths —  especially 
at  a  time  when  the  public  service  was  in  need  of 
his  undivided  attention — and  Nelson  never  had 
a  kindly  feeling  towards  him  afterwards.    This 


230      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

gallant  officer  and  loyal  friend  was  in  command 
of  the  Blenheim  (seventy-four  guns)  when  she 
and  the  Java  (twenty-three  guns)  foundered  with 
all  hands  near  the  island  of  Rodriguez,  in  the 
East  Indies,  on  the  ist  February,  1807.  Nelson 
harboured  a  childish  bitterness  against  Admiral 
Troubridge  because  of  his  plain  speaking,  and 
especially  after  the  latter  was  appointed  a  Lord 
of  the  Admiralty.  He  always  believed  the  "hid- 
den hand"  to  be  that  of  his  former  friend,  to 
whom  he  delighted  at  one  time  to  give  the  term 
"Nonpareil."  In  a  letter  to  a  friend  he  says: 
"I  have  a  sharp  eye,  and  almost  think  I  can  see 
it.  No,  poor  fellow,"  he  continues,  "I  hope  I  do 
him  injustice;  he  surely  cannot  forget  my  kind- 
ness to  him."  He  boasts  of  how  he  spoke  to  St. 
Vincent,  the  former  "Nonpareil."  In  another 
eloquent  passage  he  complains  that  Troubridge 
refuses  to  endorse  his  recommendations  of  officers 
for  promotion,  that  he  has  been  so  rebuffed  that 
his  spirits  are  broken  and  the  great  Troubridge 
has  cowed  him  (this,  of  course,  in  derision),  and 
if  he  asked  for  anything  more  he  would  not  get  it. 
He  would  never  forget  it.  No  wonder  he  was  not 
well.  The  Admiralty  are  "beasts"  for  not  allow- 
ing him  to  come  to  London,  which  would  only 
deprive  him  of  a  few  days'  comfort  and  happiness, 
and  they  have  his  hearty  prayers.  He  continues 
in  the  same  ludicrous  strain,  "I  have  a  letter  from 
Troubridge  urging  me  to  wear  flannel  shirts,  as 
though  he  cared  for  me.    He  hopes  that  I  shall 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  231 

go  and  have  walks  ashore,  as  the  weather  is  now 
fine."  "I  suppose  he  is  laughing  at  me,  but  never 
mind."  He  suffers  from  sea-sickness  and  tooth- 
ache, and  "none  of  them  care  a  damn  about  my 
sufferings,"  and  so  on.  These  misdirected  out- 
bursts of  feverish  antipathy  to  poor  Troubridge 
were  frequent,  and  always  inconceivably  comical 
as  well  as  distressingly  peevish.  But  behind  it 
all  there  was  a  consciousness  of  unequalled  power 
which  everyone  who  knew  him  recognized,  and 
they  therefore  patiently  bore  with  his  weaknesses, 
trying  as  they  sometimes  were. 

Lord  St.  Vincent  believed,  and  stated  to  Nelson, 
that  the  only  other  man  who  possessed  the  same 
power  of  infusing  into  others  the  same  spirit  as 
his  own  was  Troubridge,  and  no  doubt  this  inno- 
cent praise  of  a  noble  and  gallant  sailor  rankled 
in  Nelson's  mind,  and  was  the  beginning  of  the 
jealousy  that  grew  into  hate.  He  could  not  brook 
any  one  being  put  on  an  equality  with  himself, 
and  he  clung  tenaciously,  though  generously,  to 
this  idea  of  authority  and  superiority  when  he 
requested  in  his  last  dying  gasp  that  he  should 
not  be  superseded. 

After  signing  what  is  called  the  codicil  to  his 
will,  Captains  Hardy  and  Blackwood  joined  him 
on  the  poop  to  receive  his  instructions.  He  was 
calmly  absorbed  with  the  enemy's  plan  of  defence 
and  his  own  of  attack.  He  asked  Blackwood 
what  he  would  consider  a  victory,  and  the  latter  re- 
plied that  he  thought  that,  "considering  the  disposi- 


232       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

tion  of  both  fleets,  fourteen  captures  would  be 
a  fine  result."  Nelson  said  he  would  not  be  satis- 
fied with  less  than  twenty,  and  that  nothing  short 
of  annihilation  was  his  object.  Soon  afterwards 
he  gave  orders  to  Mr.  Pasco  to  make  the  memorable 
signal  that 

England  Expects  Every  Man  Will  Do  His  Duty 

which  sent  a  thrill  of  fiery  enthusiasm  through- 
out the  whole  fleet.  Then  the  signal  for  "close 
action"  went  up,  and  the  cheering  was  renewed, 
which  created  a  remarkable  effect.  Collingwood, 
whose  attention  was  wholly  on  a  Spanish  three- 
decker  that  he  had  selected  to  engage,  is  reported 
to  have  been  irritated,  and  spontaneously  expressed 
the  wish  that  "Nelson  would  cease  signalling,  as 
they  all  knew  what  to  do." 

At  noon  the  French  ship,  the  Fougeux,  fired  the 
first  shot  of  the  battle.  The  belligerent  admirals 
saluted  in  the  good  old  pious  style,  like  profes- 
sional boxers  shaking  hands  before  the  attempt  to 
knock  each  other  out,  and  in  a  few  more  minutes 
were  engaged  in  deadly  conflict,  hurling  death  at 
each  other.  Nelson,  in  his  courageous  melancholy 
way,  confident  of  his  own  powers  and  trusting 
reverently  in  the  continuance  of  the  lavish  bounty 
of  God,  resigned  his  fate  to  Him  who  had  given 
him  the  opportunity  of  doing  his  duty.  The 
conspicuous  splendour  of  the  decorations  which  he 
wore  on  the  breast  of  his  admiral's  frock  was  ap- 
prehensively looked  upon  by  his  comrades,  who 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  233 

loved  him  with  touching  loyalty.  They  mut- 
tered their  disappointment  to  each  other,  but 
shrank  from  hurting  his  feelings  by  warning  him 
of  the  danger  of  the  sharpshooters,  to  whom  he 
would  be  a  target,  remembering  how  he  had 
sharply  replied  to  some  anxious  soul  who  on  a 
previous  occasion  had  cautioned  him  with  regard 
to  his  prominent  appearance,  "that  in  honour 
he  had  gained  his  orders,  and  in  honour  he  would 
die  with  them.', 

The  battle  quickly  developed  into  a  carnage. 
The  Bucentaure  had  found  her  range  soon  after 
twelve  o'clock,  when  some  of  the  shots  went  over 
the  Victory.  Blackwood  was  at  this  time  ordered 
to  rejoin  his  ship.  He  shook  hands  with  his  chief, 
and  in  some  brief  parting  words  expressed  the 
"hope  that  he  would  soon  return  to  the  Victory  to 
find  him  well  and  in  possession  of  twenty  prizes"; 
and  Nelson  is  reported  to  have  calmly  answered, 
"God  bless  you,  Blackwood,  I  shall  never  speak 
to  you  again."  His  habit  was  to  refer  to  death 
with  eager  frankness,  and  as  though  he  were  in 
love  with  it,  without  in  the  least  showing  any 
lack  of  alertness  or  detraction  from  the  hazardous 
objects  he  had  set  himself  to  fulfil.  His  faith  in 
the  powerful  aid  of  the  Omnipotent  was  as  unvary- 
ing in  his  sphere  of  warfare  as  was  Cromwell's 
when  he  had  the  stern  realities  of  human  unruli- 
ness  to  steady  and  chastise.  Nelson,  like  the 
latter,  had  in  his  peculiar  way  a  deep-rooted  awe 
and  fear  of  God,  which   must  have  made  him 


234      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

oblivious  to  all  other  fear.  The  magnificent  fellow 
never  showed  greater  mastery  of  the  science  of 
strategy,  nor  did  he  ever  scan  with  greater  vigil- 
ance the  manner  of  carrying  out  the  creation  of 
his  genius.  Collingwood,  who  was  first  in  the 
thick  of  the  fight,  set  his  heart  throbbing  with 
pride  and  admiration  when  he  observed  the  Royal 
Sovereign  dash  through  the  lines  of  the  enemy, 
spreading  devastation  and  death  with  unerring 
judgment.  "See,"  said  Nelson  to  Captain  Black- 
wood, "how  that  noble  fellow,  Collingwood,  takes 
his  ship  into  action !"  Then  he  paused  for  a 
moment,  and  continued,  "How  I  envy  him!" 
And  as  though  the  spirits  of  the  two  men  were  in 
communion  with  each  other,  Collingwood,  know- 
ing that  the  Commander-in-Chief's  eager  eye  was 
fixed  upon  him  in  fond  admiration,  called  out  to 
the  flag-captain  near  him,  "Rotherham,  what 
would  Nelson  give  to  be  here?" 

One  of  those  fine  human  touches  of  brotherhood 
which  Nelson  knew  so  well  how  to  handle  with 
his  faultless  tact  had  occurred  the  day  before. 
Collingwood  and  some  officers  paid  a  visit  to  the 
Victory  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  any  instruc- 
tions he  might  have  to  give.  Nelson  asked  Col- 
lingwood where  his  captain  was,  and  when  he 
replied  that  they  were  not  on  friendly  terms, 
Nelson  sharply  answered,  "Not  on  good  terms," 
and  forthwith  gave  orders  for  a  boat  to  be  sent 
for  Rotherham;  and  when  he  came  aboard  he 
took  him  to  Collingwood  and  said,"  Look!  there 


H.M.S.  "VICTORY"  GOING  INTO  BATTLE  AT  TRAFALGAR. 

After  Richards. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  235 

is  the  enemy,  shake  hands,"  and  they  renewed 
their  friendship  by  gratefully  carrying  out  his 
wishes.  But  for  this,  perhaps  we  should  have 
been  cheated  of  knowing  the  charming  anecdote, 
which  denotes  the  veneration  the  two  old  friends 
had  for  each  other. 

There  is  no  need  to  make  any  apology  for  this 
digression,  for  it  is  to  record  one  more  of  the  many 
acts  of  wisdom  and  tenderness  that  were  so  nat- 
ural to  this  man  of  massive  understanding.  The 
incalculable  results  that  he  was  destined  to  accom- 
plish may  well  be  allowed  to  obscure  any  human 
weakness  that  sadly  beset  him. 

Nelson,  with  blithe  courage,  sailed  right  into 
the  centre  of  the  French  fleet,  which  in  disorder 
surrounded  their  Commander-in-Chief's  ship,  his 
intention  being  to  capture  her  and  take  Villeneuve 
prisoner.  Never  a  gun  was  fired  from  the  Victory, 
although  many  of  her  spars,  sails,  and  her  rigging 
had  suffered  severely,  until  she  had  rounded  as 
close  as  it  was  possible  under  the  stern  of  the 
Bucentaure  and  got  into  position.  Then  a  terrific 
broadside  was  let  fly  from  her  double-shotted 
guns,  which  raked  the  Bucentaure  fore  and  aft, 
and  the  booming  of  cannon  continued  until  her 
masts  and  hull  were  a  complete  wreck.  Many 
guns  were  dismounted  and  four  hundred  men 
killed.  The  Victory  then  swung  off  and  left  the 
doomed  Bucentaure  to  be  captured  by  the  Con- 
queror, and  Villeneuve  was  taken  prisoner.  After 
clearing  the  Bucentaure,  the   Victory  fouled  the 


236      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Redoutable,  and  proceeded  to  demolish  her  hull 
with  the  starboard  guns,  and  with  her  port  guns 
she  battered  the  Santissima  Trinidad,  until  she 
was  a  mass  of  wreckage,  and  the  Africa  and  Nep- 
tune forced  her  to  surrender.  Meanwhile,  the 
Victory  kept  hammering  with  her  starboard  guns 
at  the  Redoutable  until  her  lower  deck  cannon 
were  put  out  of  action.  Then  she  used  her  upper 
deck  small  guns  and  muskets  from  aloft.  Nelson 
was  too  humane  a  man  to  use  this  method  of  war- 
fare from  the  lower  tops,  and  too  practical,  lest 
the  ropes  and  sails  should  be  damaged.  The 
writer  is  of  opinion  that  he  was  wrong  in  this  view, 
as  was  clearly  shown  by  the  deadly  execution  the 
French  musketeers  did  from  aloft  before  their 
masts  were  shot  away  by  the  British  big  artillery. 
It  can  never  be  wrong  to  outmatch  an  enemy  in 
the  methods  they  employ,  no  matter  what  form 
they  take.  Although  the  victory  was  all  on  the 
British  side  at  Trafalgar,  it  would  have  been  greater 
and  with  less  loss  of  life  on  our  side  had  musket- 
eers been  employed  in  the  same  way  as  the  French 
and  Spanish  employed  them.  The  men  on  the  up- 
per deck  of  the  Victory  were  shot  down  by  these 
snipers  without  having  an  equal  chance  of  retal- 
iating. The  Redoutable 's  mizzentop  was  full 
of  sharpshooters  when  the  two  ships  fell  along- 
side of  each  other,  but  only  two  were  left  there 
when  Nelson  was  shot  and  dropped  on  his  left 
side  on  the  deck  a  foot  or  two  from  Captain 
Hardy.     The  Frenchman  who  shot  him  was  killed 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  237 

himself  by  a  shot  fired  from  the  Victory's  deck, 
which  knocked  his  head  to  pieces.  His  comrade 
was  also  shot  dead  while  trying  to  escape  down 
the  rigging,  and  fell  on  the  Redoutable' s  poop. 
The  other  sharpshooters  had  been  previously 
killed  by  the  musketry  from  the  Victory's  deck. 

Nelson  told  Hardy,  when  he  expressed  the  hope 
that  he  was  not  seriously  hurt,  that  "they  had 
done  for  him  at  last,  and  that  he  felt  his  backbone 
was  broken."  He  was  hit  on  the  left  shoulder; 
the  ball  had  pierced  his  left  lung.  The  snipers 
from  the  tops  of  the  other  enemy  ships  killed  a 
large  number  of  the  Victory's  officers  and  men  who 
were  on  deck.  The  French  made  an  attempt  to 
board,  but  were  thrown  back  in  confusion  and 
with  tremendous  loss.  The  instinct  of  domination 
and  the  unconquerable  combativeness  of  our  race 
is  always  more  fiercely  courageous  when  pressed 
to  a  point  which  causes  others  to  take  to  their 
heels  or  surrender. 

It  was  not  an  exaggeration  on  the  part  of  the 
French  and  Spanish  to  declare  that  the  British 
sailors  and  soldiers  were  not  ordinary  men  but 
devils,  when  the  real  tussle  for  mastery  began, 
and  when  they  were  even  believed  to  be  beaten. 
The  French  and  Spanish  conclusions  were  right 
then,  and  the  ruthless  Germans,  stained  with  un- 
speakable crimes,  should  know  they  are  right  now, 
for  they  have  had  many  chances  in  recent  days 
of  realizing  the  power  of  the  recuperating  spirit 
they  are  up  against,  just  at  a  time  when  they 


238      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

have  become  imbued  with  the  idea  that  they 
have  beaten  our  forces  on  land  and  destroyed  our 
ships  and  murdered  their  crews  at  sea.  The 
Kaiser  and  his  advisers,  military  and  naval,  have 
made  the  German  people  pay  dearly  for  the  ex- 
periment of  stopping  our  supplies  by  sea,  for  the 
loss  of  life  by  the  sinking  of  their  own  submarines 
must  have  been  enormous.  But  only  those  to 
whom  they  belong  will  ever  know  that  they  have 
not  returned,  and  that  they  must  have  been  sent 
to  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

We  can  judge  only  by  written  records  and 
authoritative  paintings  or  prints  of  the  period 
what  the  naval  battles  of  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century  were  like.  But  it  is  only  those  who  have 
studied  minutely  the  naval  battles  of  St.  Vincent, 
the  Nile,  Copenhagen,  and  Trafalgar  who  can 
depict  the  awful  character  and  thrilling  nature  of 
these  ocean  conflicts. 

While  the  author  was  serving  as  an  apprentice 
aboard  a  sailing  vessel  during  the  Prussian-Danish 
War  in  1864  a  dense  fog  came  on,  and  continued 
the  whole  of  one  night.  When  it  cleared  up  the 
next  forenoon  we  found  that  the  vessel  had 
been  sailed  right  into  the  centre  of  the  Danish 
fleet,  which  defeated  the  Prussians  and  Austrians 
off  Heligoland.  There  were  other  merchantmen 
there,  and  the  cheering  as  we  passed  each  of  the 
Danish  warships  was  hearty  and  long,  while  they 
gracefully  acknowledged  by  saluting  with  their 
flags.     I   am  quite  sure  there  were  few  British 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  239 

seamen  who  would  not  have  gladly  volunteered 
to  serve  in  the  Danish  navy  against  the  Prussians, 
so  universal  was  their  bitter  dislike  to  the  Hun 
bullies  who  had  set  themselves  to  steal  by  force 
the  possessions  to  which  they  had  not  an  atom  of 
right.  The  sight  of  these  fine  frigates  and  line- 
of-battle  ships  manoeuvring  to  come  to  grips  with 
their  cowardly  antagonists  who  were  assailing 
their  national  rights  has  been  revivified  during 
a  long  course  of  study  of  Nelson's  naval  warfare, 
and  makes  the  awful  vision  of  Trafalgar  appear 
as  it  really  was,  and  makes  me  wish  that  I  were 
gifted  with  the  art  of  words  so  that  I  might  de- 
scribe it  in  all  its  gruesome  wreckage  and  magni- 
tude, as  the  recollection  of  the  majestic  sight  of 
the  Danish  ships  before  they  even  went  into  action 
makes  it  appear  to  me. 

My  mind's  eye  pictures  one  after  another  of  the 
French  and  Spanish  ships  surrendering,  the  hurri- 
cane of  cheers  that  followed  their  defeat,  and  the 
pathetic  anxiety  of  the  dying  chieftain  for  the 
safety  of  Captain  Hardy,  who  was  now  in  charge 
of  the  flagship  acting  as  commander-in-chief. 
Hardy  is  long  in  coming;  Nelson  fears  that  he  may 
be  killed,  and  calls  out,  "Will  no  one  bring  Hardy 
to  me?"  At  last  the  gallant  captain  sees  an  op- 
portunity of  leaving  the  deck,  for  the  Victory  is 
shielded  by  two  ships  from  the  enemy's  gunfire. 
"Well,  Hardy,"  says  Nelson  to  him,  "how  goes 
the  battle?"  "Very  well,  my  Lord,"  says  Hardy; 
"fourteen  or  fifteen  of  the  enemy's  ships  are  in 


240       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

our  possession/'  "That  is  well,"  said  Nelson, 
"but  I  bargained  for  twenty";  and  then  followed 
the  memorable  order,  "Anchor,  Hardy,  anchor." 
"If  I  live,"  he  says,  "we  will  anchor";  and  in 
answer  to  Hardy's  supposition  that  Collingwood 
should  take  charge,  he  impulsively  resents  the 
suggestion  and  expresses  the  hope  that  this  will 
not  happen  while  he  lives,  and  urges  again  on 
Hardy  that  the  fleet  may  be  anchored,  and  asks 
him  to  make  the  signal.  He  hopes  that  none  of 
our  ships  have  struck,  and  his  devoted  friend  re- 
assures him  that  none  have  and  that  they  never 
will.  He  commissions  Hardy  to  give  "dear  Lady 
Hamilton  his  hair  and  other  belongings,"  and  asks 
that  his  "body  shall  not  be  thrown  overboard." 
Hardy  is  then  asked  in  childlike  simplicity  to  kiss 
him,  and  the  rough,  fearless  captain  with  deep  emo- 
tion kneels  and  reverently  kisses  Nelson  on  the 
cheek.  He  then  thanks  God  that  he  has  done  his 
duty,  and  makes  the  solemn  thoughts  that  are 
troubling  his  last  moments  manifest  in  words  by  in- 
forming Doctor  Scott,  with  a  vital  sailorly  turn  of 
speech,  that  "he  had  not  been  a  great  sinner," 
and  then  bids  him  remember  that  he  leaves  Lady 
Hamilton  and  his  daughter  Horatia  as  a  legacy  to  his 
country,  and  that  Horatia  is  never  to  be  forgotten. 
Even  at  this  distance  of  time  one  cannot  help 
regretting  that  nature's  power  did  not  sustain 
him  to  see  the  total  debacle  of  the  enemy  fleets. 
He  knew  that  he  had  triumphed,  and  that  his 
task  had  ended  fatally  to  himself,  but  his  sufferings 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  241 

did  not  prevent  his  spirit  sallying  to  and  fro, 
making  him  feel  the  joy  of  living  and  wish  that  he 
might  linger  but  a  little  longer.  He  was  struck 
down  at  a  critical  stage  of  the  battle,  though  there 
was  never  any  doubt  as  to  how  it  would  end, 
thanks  to  the  adroit  skill  and  bravery  of  Colling- 
wood  and  those  who  served  under  him.  It  is  a 
happy  thought  to  know  that  our  hero,  even  when 
the  shadows  were  closing  round  him,  had  the 
pleasure  of  hearing  from  the  lips  of  the  faithful 
Hardy  that  fifteen  of  the  enemy  ships  had  struck 
and  not  one  of  ours  had  lowered  a  flag.  But  how 
much  more  gladsome  would  the  passing  have 
been  had  he  lived  to  know  that  the  battle  had 
ended  with  the  capture  of  nine  French  vessels 
and  ten  Spanish,  nineteen  in  all.  He  died  at 
4.30  p.m.  on  the  2 1  st  October,  1805,  just  when 
the  battle  was  flickering  to  an  end.  Villeneuve 
had  given  himself  up,  and  was  a  prisoner  on  board 
the  Mars.  Dumanoir  had  bolted  with  four  of 
the  line,  after  committing  a  decidedly  cowardly 
act  by  firing  into  the  captured  Spanish  ships,  the 
object  being  to  put  them  out  of  the  possession  of 
the  British.  They  could  not  succeed  in  this  with- 
out killing  large  numbers  of  their  allies,  and  this 
was  all  they  were  successful  in  doing.  It  was  a 
cruel,  clumsy  crime,  which  the  Spanish  rightly 
resented  but  never  succeeded  in  avenging. 

Meanwhile  the  Spanish  Admiral  Gravina,  who 
had  lost  an  arm,  took  command  of  the  dilapidated 

combined   fleets,   and   fled   into  Cadiz  with  five 

16 


242       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

French  and  five  Spanish  ships,  and  by  5  p.m.  the 
thundering  of  the  guns  had  ceased,  and  the  sea 
all  round  was  a  scene  of  death,  dismasted  ships, 
and  awful  wreckage.  The  Rear-Admiral  Duma- 
noir  was  sailing  gaily  towards  the  refuge  of  Roche- 
fort  or  Ferrol  when  he  came  into  view  of,  and 
ultimately  had  to  fight  on  the  4th  November,  a 
squadron  under  Sir  Richard  Strachan.  Dumanoir 
and  his  men  are  said  to  have  fought  with  great 
fierceness,  but  his  ships  were  beaten,  captured, 
and  taken  in  a  battered  condition,  and  subse- 
quently sent  to  England,  so  that  now  twenty- 
three  out  of  the  thirty-three  that  came  out  of 
Cadiz  with  all  the  swagger  of  confidence  and  su- 
periority to  match  themselves  against  Nelson  and 
his  fiery  coadjutors  were  tragically  accounted  for. 
Collingwood  was  now  the  commander-in-chief  of 
the  British  fleet,  and  to  him  fell  the  task  of  notify- 
ing the  victory.     I  insert  the  documents  in  full. 

LONDON   GAZETTE   EXTRAORDINARY. 

Admiralty  Office, 
6th  November,  1805. 
Despatches,   of   which  the  following   are  copies,   were 
received  at  the  Admiralty  this  day,  at  one  o'clock  a.m. 
from  Vice-Admiral  Collingwood,  Commander-in-Chief  of 
his  Majesty's  ships  and  vessels  off  Cadiz. 

"EURYALUS,"  OFF  CAPE  TRAFALGAR, 

October  22,  1805. 
Sir, — The  ever-to-be-lamented   death   of  Vice-Admiral 
Lord  Viscount  Nelson,  who,  in  the  late  conflict  with  the 
enemy,  fell  in  the  hour  of  victory,  leaves  me  the  duty  of 


ADiMIRAL  COLL1NGWOOD. 

After  the  portrait  in  the  possession  of  the   City  of  Newcastle   Corporation. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  243 

informing  my  lords  commissioners  of  the  Admiralty,  that 
on  the  19th  instant  it  was  communicated  to  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, from  the  ships  watching  the  motions  of 
the  enemy  in  Cadiz,  that  the  combined  fleet  had  put  to  sea. 
As  they  sailed  with  light  winds  westerly,  his  Lordship 
concluded  their  destination  was  the  Mediterranean,  and 
immediately  made  all  sail  for  the  Straits'  entrance,  with 
the  British  squadron,  consisting  of  twenty-seven  ships, 
three  of  them  sixty-fours,  where  his  Lordship  was  informed, 
by  Captain  Blackwood  (whose  vigilance  in  watching  and 
giving  notice  of  the  enemy's  movements  had  been  highly 
meritorious),  that  they  had  not  yet  passed  the  Straits. 

On  Monday,  the  21st  instant,  at  daylight,  when  Cape 
Trafalgar  bore  E.  by  S.  about  seven  leagues,  the  enemy 
was  discovered  six  or  seven  miles  to  the  eastward,  the  wind 
about  west,  and  very  light;  the  Commander-in-Chief  im- 
mediately made  the  signal  for  the  fleet  to  bear  up  in  two 
columns,  as  they  are  formed  in  the  order  of  sailing;  a  mode 
of  attack  his  Lordship  had  previously  directed,  to  avoid  the 
delay  and  inconvenience  in  forming  a  line  of  battle  in  the 
usual  manner.  The  enemy's  line  consisted  of  thirty-three 
ships  (of  which  eighteen  were  French  and  fifteen  Spanish, 
commanded  in  chief  by  Admiral  Villeneuve,  the  Spaniards 
under  the  direction  of  Gravina),  bore  with  their  heads  to 
the  northwards,  and  formed  their  line  of  battle  with  great 
closeness  and  correctness.  But  as  the  mode  of  attack 
was  unusual,  so  the  structure  of  their  line  was  new;  it 
formed  a  crescent  convexing  to  leeward;  so  that  in  leading 
down  to  their  centre  I  had  both  their  van  and  rear  abaft 
the  beam  before  the  fire  opened;  every  alternate  ship  was 
about  a  cable's  length  to  windward  of  her  second  ahead 
and  astern,  forming  a  kind  of  double  line,  and  appeared, 
when  on  their  beam,  to  leave  a  very  little  interval  between 
them,  and  this  without  crowding  their  ships.  Admiral 
Villeneuve  was  in  the  Bucentaure  in  the  centre,  and  the 
Prince  of  Asturias  bore  Gravina's  flag  in  the  rear,  but  the 


244      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

French  and  Spanish  ships  were  mixed  without  any  apparent 
regard  to  order  of  national  squadron. 

As  the  mode  of  our  attack  had  been  previously  deter- 
mined upon,  and  communicated  to  the  flag  officers  and 
captains,  few  signals  were  necessary,  and  none  were  made 
except  to  direct  close  order  as  the  lines  bore  down.  The 
Commander-in-Chief  in  the  Victory  led  the  weather  col- 
umn, and  the  Royal  Sovereign,  which  bore  my  flag,  the  lee. 
The  action  began  at  twelve  o'clock  by  the  leading  ships  of 
the  column  breaking  through  the  enemy's  line;  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief about  the  tenth  ship  from  the  van;  the 
second-in-command  about  the  twelfth  from  the  rear,  leav- 
ing the  van  of  the  enemy  unoccupied ;  the  succeeding  ships 
breaking  through  in  all  parts,  astern  of  their  leaders,  and 
engaging  the  enemy  at  the  muzzles  of  their  guns.  The 
conflict  was  severe;  the  enemy's  ships  were  fought  with  a 
gallantry  highly  honourable  to  their  officers;  but  the  at- 
tack on  them  was  irresistible,  and  it  pleased  the  Almighty 
Disposer  of  all  events  to  grant  his  Majesty's  arms  a  com- 
plete and  glorious  victory.  About  three  p.m.,  many  of  the 
enemy's  ships  having  struck  their  colours,  their  line  gave 
way;  Admiral  Gravina,  with  ten  ships  joining  their  frigates 
to  leewards,  stood  towards  Cadiz.  The  five  headmost 
ships  of  their  van  tacked,  and  standing  to  the  southward, 
to  windward  of  the  British  line,  were  engaged,  and  the 
sternmost  of  them  taken;  the  others  went  off,  leaving  to 
his  Majesty's  squadron  nineteen  ships  of  the  line  (of  which 
two  are  first-rates,  the  Santissima  Trinidad  and  the  Santa 
Anna),  with  three  flag  officers,  viz.,  Admiral  Villeneuve, 
the  Commander-in-Chief;  Don  Ignacio  Maria  d'Alava, 
Vice-Admiral;  and  the  Spanish  Rear- Admiral  Don  Baltazar 
Hidalgo  Cisneros. 

After  such  a  victory  it  may  appear  unnecessary  to  enter 
into  encomiums  on  the  particular  parts  taken  by  the  several 
commanders;  the  conclusion  says  more  than  I  have  lan- 
guage to  express;  the  spirit  which  animated  all  was  the 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  245 

same;  when  all  exert  themselves  zealously  in  their  country's 
service,  all  deserve  that  their  high  merits  should  stand 
recorded;  and  never  was  high  merit  more  conspicuous 
than  in  the  battle  I  have  described. 

The  Achille,  a  French  seventy-four,  after  having  surren- 
dered, by  some  mismanagement  of  the  Frenchmen,  took 
fire  and  blew  up;  two  hundred  of  her  men  were  saved  by 
the  tenders.  A  circumstance  occurred  during  the  action, 
which  so  strongly  marks  the  invincible  spirit  of  British 
seamen  when  engaging  the  enemies  of  their  country,  that 
I  cannot  resist  the  pleasure  I  have  in  making  known  to 
their  Lordships:  the  Temeraire  was  boarded,  by  accident 
or  design,  by  a  French  ship  on  one  side,  and  a  Spaniard  on 
the  other;  the  contest  was  vigorous;  but  in  the  end  the 
combined  ensigns  were  torn  from  the  poop,  and  the  British 
hoisted  in  their  places. l 

Such  a  battle  could  not  be  fought  without  sustaining  a 
great  loss  of  men.  I  have  not  only  to  lament  in  common 
with  the  British  Navy  and  the  British  nation  in  the  fall  of 
the  Commander-in-Chief,  the  loss  of  a  hero  whose  name 
will  be  immortal,  and  his  memory  ever  dear  to  his  country; 
but  my  heart  is  rent  with  the  most  poignant  grief  for  the 
death  of  a  friend,  to  whom,  by  many  years  of  intimacy,  and 
a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  virtues  of  his  mind,  which  in- 
spired ideas  superior  to  the  common  race  of  men,  I  was 
bound  by  the  strongest  ties  of  affection;  a  grief  to  which 
even  the  glorious  occasion  in  which  he  fell  does  not  bring 
the  consolation  which  perhaps  it  ought.  His  Lordship 
received  a  musket  ball  in  his  left  breast,  about  the  middle 
of  the  action,  and  sent  an  officer  to  me  immediately,  with 
his  last  farewell,  and  soon  after  expired.  I  have  also  to 
lament  the  loss  of  those  excellent  officers,  Captain  Duff 
of  the  Mars,  and  Cooke  of  the  Bellerophon;  I  have  yet 
heard  of  none  others. 

1  Subsequent  information  has  proved  this  statement  wanted  confirma- 
tion. 


246      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

I  fear  the  numbers  that  have  fallen  will  be  found  very 
great  when  the  returns  come  to  me;  but  it  having  blown  a 
gale  of  wind  ever  since  the  action,  I  have  not  yet  had  it  in 
my  power  to  collect  any  reports  from  the  ships.  The  Royal 
Sovereign  having  lost  her  masts,  except  the  tottering  fore- 
mast, I  called  the  Euryalus  to  me,  while  the  action  contin- 
ued, which  ship,  lying  within  hail,  made  my  signals,  a 
service  which  Captain  Blackwood  performed  with  very 
great  attention.  After  the  action  I  shifted  my  flag  to  her, 
so  that  I  might  the  more  easily  communicate  my  orders  to, 
and  collect  the  ships,  and  towed  the  Royal  Sovereign  out 
to  seaward.  The  whole  fleet  were  now  in  a  very  perilous 
situation;  many  dismasted;  all  shattered;  in  thirteen 
fathom  water  off  the  shoals  of  Trafalgar;  and  when  I  made 
the  signal  to  anchor,  few  of  the  ships  had  an  anchor  to  let 
go,  their  cables  being  shot.  But  the  same  good  Providence 
which  aided  us  through  such  a  day  preserved  us  in  the 
night,  by  the  wind  shifting  a  few  points,  and  drifting  the 
ships  off  the  land,  except  four  of  the  captured  dismasted 
ships,  which  are  now  at  anchor  off  Trafalgar,  and  I  hope 
will  ride  safe  until  these  gales  are  over. 

Having  thus  detailed  the  proceedings  of  the  fleet  on  this 
occasion,  I  beg  to  congratulate  their  Lordships  on  a  victory, 
which  I  hope  will  add  a  ray  to  the  glory  of  his  Majesty's 
crown,  and  be  attended  with  public  benefit  to  our  country. 

I  am,  etc., 
{Signed)  C.  Collingwood. 

William  Marsden,  Esq. 

GENERAL  ORDER 

"Euryalus," 

October  22,  1805. 

The  ever-to-be-lamented  death  of  Lord  Viscount  Nelson, 
Duke  of  Bronte,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  who  fell  in  the 
action  of  the  21st,  in  the  arms  of  Victory,  covered  with 
glory,  whose  memory  will  ever  be  dear  to  the  British  Navy 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  247 

and  the  British  nation,  whose  zeal  for  the  honour  of  his 
King,  and  for  the  interest  of  his  country  will  be  ever  held 
up  as  a  shining  example  for  a  British  seaman,  leaves  to  me 
a  duty  to  return  my  thanks  to  the  Right  Honourable  Rear- 
Admiral,  the  captains,  officers,  seamen,  and  detachments 
of  Royal  Marines,  serving  on  his  Majesty's  squadron  now 
under  my  command,  for  their  conduct  on  that  day.  But 
where  can  I  find  language  to  express  my  sentiments  of  the 
valour  and  skill  which  were  displayed  by  the  officers,  the 
seamen,  and  marines,  in  the  battle  with  the  enemy,  where 
every  individual  appeared  a  hero,  on  whom  the  glory  of 
his  country  depended!  The  attack  was  irresistible,  and 
the  issue  of  it  adds  to  the  page  of  naval  annals  a  brilliant 
instance  of  what  Britons  can  do,  when  their  King  and 
country  need  their  service. 

To  the  Right  Honourable  Rear-Admiral  the  Earl  of 
Northesk,  to  the  captains,  officers,  and  seamen,  and  to  the 
officers,  non-commissioned  officers,  and  privates  of  the 
Royal  Marines,  I  beg  to  give  my  sincere  and  hearty  thanks 
for  their  highly  meritorious  conduct,  both  in  the  action 
and  in  their  zeal  and  activity  in  bringing  the  captured  ships 
out  from  the  perilous  situation  in  which  they  were,  after 
their  surrender,  among  the  shoals  of  Trafalgar  in  boisterous 
weather.  And  I  desire  that  the  respective  captains  will 
be  pleased  to  communicate  to  the  officers,  seamen,  and 
Royal  Marines  this  public  testimony  of  my  high  approba- 
tion of  their  conduct,  and  my  thanks  for  it. 

(Signed)  C.  Collingwood. 

To  the  Right  Honourable  Rear- 
Admiral  the  Earl  of  Northesk, 
and  the  respective  Captains  and 
Commanders. 

GENERAL   ORDER 

The  Almighty  God,  whose  arm  is  strength,  having  of  his 
great  mercy  been  pleased  to  crown  the  exertions  of  his 


248      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Majesty's  fleet  with  success,  in  giving  them  a  complete 
victory  over  their  enemies,  on  the  21st  of  this  month;  and 
that  all  praise  and  thanksgiving  may  be  offered  up  to  the 
throne  of  grace,  for  the  great  benefit  to  our  country  and 
to  mankind,  I  have  thought  it  proper  that  a  day  should  be 
appointed  of  general  humiliation  before  God,  and  thanks- 
giving for  his  merciful  goodness,  imploring  forgiveness  of 
sins,  a  continuation  of  his  divine  mercy,  and  his  constant 
aid  to  us,  in  defence  of  our  country's  liberties  and  laws, 
and  without  which  the  utmost  efforts  of  man  are  nought; 
and  therefore  that  be  appointed  for  this  holy 

purpose. 

Given  on  board  the  Euryalus,  off  Cape  Trafalgar, 
October  22,  1805. 

{Signed)        C.    Collingwood. 

To  the  respective  Captains  and  Commanders. 

N.B. — The  fleet  having  been  dispersed  by  a  gale  of  wind, 
no  day  has  yet  been  able  to  be  appointed  for  the  above 
purpose. 

Against  the  desire  of  his  dead  comrade,  Colling- 
wood carried  into  practice  his  own  sound  and 
masterful  judgment  not  to  anchor  either  his  con- 
quests or  any  of  his  own  vessels  on  a  lee  ironbound 
shore.  Even  had  his  ground  tackle  been  sound 
and  intact,  which  it  was  not,  and  the  holding 
ground  good  instead  of  bad,  he  acted  in  a  seaman- 
like manner  by  holding  steadfastly  to  the  sound 
sailor  tradition  always  to  keep  the  gate  open  for 
drift,  to  avoid  being  caught,  and  never  to  anchor 
on  a  lee  shore;  and  if  perchance  you  get  trapped 
as  hundreds  have  been,  get  out  of  it  quickly,  if 
you  can,  before  a  gale  comes  on.  But  in  no  case 
is  it  good  seamanship  to  anchor.     There  is  always 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  249 

a  better  chance  of  saving  both  the  ship  and  lives 
by  driving  ashore  in  the  square  effort  to  beat 
off  rather  than  by  anchoring.  The  cables,  more 
often  than  not,  part,  and  if  they  do,  the  ship  is 
doomed,  and  so  may  lives  be.  Hundreds  of  sail- 
ing vessels  were  saved  in  other  days  by  the  skill 
of  their  commanders  in  carrying  out  a  plan,  long 
since  forgotten,  called  clubhauling  off  a  lee  shore. 
Few  sailors  living  to-day  will  know  the  phrase, 
or  how  to  apply  it  to  advantage.  It  was  a  simple 
method,  requiring  ability,  of  helping  the  vessel 
to  tack  when  the  wind  and  sea  made  it  impossible 
in  the  ordinary  way.  A  large  kedge  with  a  warp 
bent  on  was  let  go  on  either  the  port  or  starboard 
quarter  at  an  opportune  moment  to  make  sure  the 
vessel  would  cant  the  right  way,  and  then  the 
warp  was  cut  with  an  ax.  In  the  writer's  opin- 
ion, it  would  have  been  just  as  unwise  to  anchor 
at  Trafalgar  after  the  battle,  in  view  of  the  weather 
and  all  circumstances,  as  it  would  be  to  anchor  on 
the  Yorkshire  or  any  part  of  the  North-East  Coast 
when  an  easterly  gale  is  blowing.  But  apart 
from  the  folly  of  it,  there  were  none  of  the  ships 
that  had  ground  tackle  left  that  was  fit  to  hold 
a  cat. 

Without  a  doubt,  Nelson's  mind  was  distracted 
and  suffering  when  he  gave  Hardy  the  order  to 
anchor.  The  shadows  were  hovering  too  thickly 
round  him  at  the  time  for  him  to  concentrate 
any  sound  judgment.  Some  writers  have  con- 
demned  Collingwood   for   not   carrying   out   the 


250      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

dying  request  of  his  Commander-in-Chief.  It  was 
a  good  thing  that  the  command  of  the  fleet  fell 
into  the  hands  of  a  man  who  had  knowledge  and 
a  mind  unimpaired  to  carry  out  his  fixed  opinions. 
When  Hardy  conveyed  Nelson's  message,  he 
replied,  "That  is  the  very  last  thing  that  I  would 
have  thought  of  doing,"  and  he  was  right.  Had 
Nelson  come  out  of  the  battle  unscathed,  he 
would  assuredly  have  acted  as  Collingwood  did, 
and  as  any  well-trained  and  soundly  balanced 
sailor  would  have  done.  Besides,  he  always 
made  a  point  of  consulting  "Coll,"  as  he  called 
him,  on  great  essential  matters.  If  it  had  been 
summer-time  and  calm,  or  the  wind  off  the  land, 
and  the  glass  indicating  a  continuance  of  fine 
weather,  and  provided  the  vessels'  cables  had 
been  sound,  it  might  have  paid  to  risk  a  change  of 
wind  and  weather  in  order  to  refit  with  greater 
expedition  and  save  the  prizes,  but  certainly  not 
in  the  month  of  October  in  that  locality,  where 
the  changes  are  sudden  and  severe.  Collingwood 
acted  like  a  sound  hard-headed  man  of  affairs  in 
salving  all  he  could  and  destroying  those  he  could 
not  without  risk  of  greater  disaster. 

Collingwood's  account  of  his  difficulties  after 
the  battle  was  won  is  contained  in  the  following 
letter  to  his  father-in-law: 

Queen, 
2d  November,  1805. 
My  dear  Sir, — I  wrote  to  my  dear  Sarah  a  few  lines 
when  I  sent  my  first  dispatches  to  the  Admiralty,  which 
account  I  hope  will  satisfy  the  good  people  of  England, 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  251 

for  there  never  was,  since  England  had  a  fleet,  such  a  com- 
bat. In  three  hours  the  combined  fleet  were  annihilated, 
upon  their  own  shores,  at  the  entrance  of  their  port, 
amongst  their  own  rocks.  It  has  been  a  very  difficult  thing 
to  collect  an  account  of  our  success,  but  by  the  best  I  have 
twenty-three  sail  of  the  line  surrendered  to  us,  out  of  which 
three,  in  the  furious  gale  we  had  afterward,  being  driven 
to  the  entrance  of  the  harbour  of  Cadiz,  received  assistance 
and  got  in;  these  were  the  Santa  Anna,  the  Algeziras,  and 
Neptune  (the  last  since  sunk  and  lost);  the  Santa  Anna's 
side  was  battered  in.  The  three  we  have  sent  to  Gibraltar 
are  the  San  Ildefonso,  San  Juan  Nepomuceno,  and  Swift- 
sure;  seventeen  others  we  have  burnt,  sunk,  and  run  on 
shore,  but  the  Bahama  I  have  yet  hope  of  saving;  she  is 
gone  to  Gibraltar.  Those  ships  which  effected  their  escape 
into  Cadiz  are  quite  wrecks;  some  have  lost  their  masts 
since  they  got  in,  and  they  have  not  a  spar  or  a  store  to 
refit  them.  We  took  four  admirals — Villeneuve,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief, Vice  Admiral  D'Alava,  Rear- Admiral 
Cisneros,  Spanish,  and  Magon,  the  French  admiral,  who 
was  killed — besides  a  great  number  of  brigadiers  (com- 
manders). D'Alava,  wounded,  was  driven  into  Cadiz  in 
the  Santa  Anna;  Gravina,  who  was  not  taken,  has  lost  his 
arm  (amputated  I  have  heard,  but  not  from  him) ;  of  men, 
their  loss  is  many  thousands,  for  I  reckon  in  the  captured 
ships  we  took  twenty  thousand  prisoners  (including  the 
troops).  This  was  a  victory  to  be  proud  of;  but  in  the 
loss  of  my  excellent  friend,  Lord  Nelson,  and  a  number  of 
brave  men,  we  paid  dear  for  it;  when  my  dear  friend  re- 
ceived his  wound,  he  immediately  sent  an  officer  to  me  to 
tell  me  of  it,  and  give  his  love  to  me.  Though  the  officer 
was  directed  to  say  the  wound  was  not  dangerous,  I  read 
in  his  countenance  what  I  had  to  fear;  and  before  the 
action  was  over  Captain  Hardy  came  to  inform  me  of  his 
death.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  deeply  I  was  affected,  for 
my  friendship  for  him  was  unlike  anything  that  I  have  left 


252      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

in  the  Navy,  a  brotherhood  of  more  than  thirty  years; 
in  this  affair  he  did  nothing  without  my  counsel;  we  made 
our  line  of  battle  together,  and  concerted  the  mode  of  at- 
tack, which  was  put  into  execution  in  the  most  admirable 
style.  I  shall  grow  very  tired  of  the  sea  soon;  my  health 
has  suffered  so  much  from  the  anxious  state  I  have  been  in, 
and  the  fatigue  I  have  undergone,  that  I  shall  be  unfit  for 
service.  The  severe  gales  which  immediately  followed  the 
day  of  victory  ruined  our  prospect  of  prizes ;  our  own  infirm 
ships  could  scarce  keep  off  the  shore;  the  prizes  were  left 
to  their  fate,  and  as  they  were  driven  very  near  the  port, 
I  ordered  them  to  be  destroyed  by  burning  and  sinking, 
that  there  might  be  no  risk  of  their  falling  again  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.  There  has  been  a  great  destruction 
of  them,  indeed  I  hardly  know  what,  but  not  less  than 
seventeen  or  eighteen,  the  total  ruin  of  the  combined  fleet. 
To  alleviate  the  miseries  of  the  wounded,  as  much  as  in 
my  power,  I  sent  a  flag  to  the  Marquis  Solano,  to  offer  him 
his  wounded.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  gratitude  expressed 
by  him,  for  this  act  of  humanity;  all  this  part  of  Spain  is 
in  an  uproar  of  praise  and  thankfulness  to  the  English. 
Solano  sent  me  a  present  of  a  cask  of  wine,  and  we  have  a 
free  intercourse  with  the  shore.  Judge  of  the  footing  we 
are  on,  when  I  tell  you  he  offered  me  his  hospitals,  and 
pledged  the  Spanish  honour  for  the  care  and  cure  of  our 
wounded  men.  Our  officers  and  men,  who  were  wrecked 
in  some  of  the  prize  ships,  were  received  like  divinities; 
all  the  country  was  on  the  beach  to  receive  them;  the 
priests  and  women  distributing  wine  and  bread  and  fruit 
among  them;  the  soldiers  turned  out  of  their  barracks,  to 
make  lodging  for  them,  whilst  their  allies,  the  French,  were 
left  to  shift  for  themselves,  with  a  guard  over  them  to 
prevent  their  doing  mischief.  After  the  battle  I  shifted 
my  flag  to  the  Euryalus  frigate,  that  I  might  the  better 
distribute  my  orders;  and  when  the  ships  were  destroyed 
and  the  squadron  in  safety,   I  came  here,   my  own  ship 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  253 

being  totally  disabled;  she  lost  her  last  mast  in  the  gale. 
All  the  northern  boys,  and  Gray  don,  are  alive;  Kennicott 
has  a  dangerous  wound  in  his  shoulder;  Thompson  is 
wounded  in  the  arm,  and  just  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
action  his  leg  was  broken  by  a  splinter;  little  Charles  is 
unhurt,  but  we  have  lost  a  good  many  youngsters.  For 
myself,  I  am  in  so  forlorn  a  state,  my  servants  killed,  my 
luggage,  what  is  left,  is  on  board  the  Sovereign,  and  Clavell1 
wounded.  I  have  appointed  Sir  Peter  Parker's2  grandson, 
and  Captain  Thomas,  my  old  lieutenant,  post  captains; 
Clavell,  and  the  first  lieutenant  of  the  Victory,  made  com- 
manders; but  I  hope  the  Admiralty  will  do  more  for  them, 
for  in  the  history  of  our  Navy  there  is  no  instance  of  a 
victory  so  complete  and  so  great.  The  ships  that  escaped 
into  Cadiz  are  wrecks;  and  they  have  neither  stores  nor 
inclination  to  refit  them.  I  shall  now  go,  as  soon  as  I  get 
sufficient  squadron  equipped,  and  see  what  I  can  do  with 
the  Carthagenians ;  if  I  can  get  at  them,  the  naval  war 
will  be  finished  in  this  country.  Prize-money  I  shall  get 
little  or  none  for  this  business,  for  though  the  loss  of  the 
enemy  may  be  estimated  at  near  four  millions,  it  is  most  of 
it  gone  to  the  bottom.  Don  Argemoso,  who  was  formerly 
captain  of  the  Isedro,  commanded  the  Monarca,  one  of  our 
captures;  he  sent  to  inform  me  he  was  in  the  Leviathan, 
and  I  immediately  ordered,  for  our  old  acquaintance'  sake, 
his  liberty  on  parole.  All  the  Spaniards  speak  of  us  in 
terms  of  adoration;  and  Villeneuve,  whom  I  had  in  the 
frigate,  acknowledges  that  they  cannot  contend  with  us 
at  sea.  I  do  not  know  what  will  be  thought  of  it  in  England, 
but  the  effect  here  is  highly  advantageous  to  the  British 
name.  Kind  remembrances  to  all  my  friends;  I  dare  say 
your  neighbour,  Mr. will  be  delighted  with  the  history 

1  Captain  John  Clavell,  then  first  lieutenant  of  the  Royal  Sovereign. 

2  The  lamented  Sir  Peter  Parker,  Bart.,  who  fell  in  the  Chesapeake 
in  18 14,  when  captain  of  the  Menelaus,  leading  his  men  against  the 
Americans. 


254      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

of  the  battle;  if  he  had  been  in  it,  it  would  have  animated 
him  more  than  all  his  daughter's  chemistry;  it  would  have 
new  strung  his  nerves,  and  made  him  young  again.  God 
bless  you,  my  dear  sir,  may  you  be  ever  happy;  it  is  very 
long  since  I  heard  from  home. 

I  am,  ever,  your  most  truly  affectionate, 

CUTHBERT    COLLINGWOOD. 

I  have  ordered  all  the  boys  to  be  discharged  into  this 
ship;  another  such  fight  will  season  them  pretty  well. 
Brown  is  in  perfect  health.  We  had  forty-seven  killed, 
ninety-four  wounded. 

Great  efforts  were  made  to  get  all  the  people 
out  of  the  disabled  vessels  before  they  drifted 
ashore.  It  is  really  splendid  to  read  the  official 
account  of  the  deeds  of  bravery  of  our  fine  fellows 
risking  their  own  lives  to  save  the  lives  of  those 
they  had  defeated.  Seven  days  after  the  battle, 
the  Victory  arrived  at  Gibraltar,  and  although 
her  masts  had  been  shot  away  and  her  hull  badly 
damaged,  she  was  refitted  and  sailed  for  England 
on  the  4th  November,  the  same  day  that  the 
straggling  Dumanoir  and  his  ships  fell  into  the 
hands  ©f  Sir  Richard  Strachan  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay. 

XIV 

On  the  Victory's  arrival  at  Spithead  with  Nel- 
son's remains  aboard,  preserved  in  spirits,  the 
body  was  taken  out  and  put  in  a  leaden  coffin 
filled  with  brandy  and  other  strong  preservatives. 
On  the  arrival  of  the  Victory  at  the  entrance  of 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  255 

the  Thames,  the  body  was  removed,  dressed  in 
the  Admiral's  uniform,  and  put  into  the  coffin 
made  out  of  the  mainmast  of  VOrient  and  pre- 
sented to  Nelson  some  years  before  by  Captain 
Hallowell.  It  was  then  put  into  a  third  case, 
and  on  the  9th  January,  1806,  after  lying  in  state 
for  three  days,  the  remains  were  buried  in  St. 
Paul's. 

The  imposing  demonstrations  of  sorrow  could 
not  be  excelled.  Parliament  voted  a  monument 
in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  others  were  erected 
in  all  the  principal  towns  in  England  and  Scotland. 
There  were  neither  material  honours  nor  eulogies 
great  enough  to  express  the  gratitude  that  was 
felt  throughout  the  United  Kingdom  for  the  late 
Admiral's  achievements.  His  widow,  whom  he 
had  not  seen  for  years,  and  from  whom  he  was 
definitely  parted,  was  granted  £2000  per  annum 
for  life.  His  brother  was  made  an  Earl,  with  a 
perpetual  income  of  £6000  a  year,  and  £15,000 
of  national  money  was  voted  to  each  of  the  sisters, 
while  £100,000  was  given  for  an  estate  to  be  at- 
tached to  the  title.  The  human  legacy  left  by 
Nelson  of  Emma  Hamilton  and  their  daughter 
Horatia  was  not  mentioned,  though  he  seems 
to  have  implored  Heaven  and  earth  in  their  behalf. 
Obviously,  the  Government  felt  that  they  dare 
not  be  generous  to  everybody,  even  though  it  were 
Nelson's  dying  injunction.  Collingwood,  who  had 
as  much  to  do  with  the  triumph  of  Trafalgar  as 
Nelson  himself,  without  making  any  ado  about  it 


256      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

was  treated  pretty  much  like  a  provincial  mayor. 
The  mayor,  of  course,  may  and  often  does  adopt  a 
luxurious  Roman  style  of  living  in  order  that  his 
local  deeds  may  not  escape  observation,  but  such 
self-advertisement  was  entirely  foreign  to  Col- 
lingwood's  character.  It  was  fitting  that  every 
reasonable  honour  should  have  been  paid  to  the 
memory  of  a  great  Englishman,  whose  deeds,  in 
co-operation  with  others,  have  never  been  sur- 
passed. But  to  make  grants  and  give  honours  of 
so  generous  a  character  to  Nelson's  relatives,  and 
especially  to  his  wife,  who  had  been  a  torment  to 
him,  and  to  measure  out  Collingwood's  equally 
great  accomplishments  with  so  mean  a  hand,  is 
an  astonishing  example  of  parsimony  which,  for 
the  sake  of  our  national  honour,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
rarely  occurs.  Even  the  haughty,  plethoric  nobles 
of  a  fourth-rate  town  council  (if  it  be  not  a  libel 
to  mention  them  in  connection  with  so  discredit- 
able an  affair)  would  have  judged  the  manifest 
fitness  of  things  better  than  to  make  any  distinc- 
tion between  Admiral  Collingwood  and  his  lifelong 
friend  Nelson. 

Surely  this  famous  and  eminently  worthy  pub- 
lic servant  was  as  deserving  of  an  Earldom  as 
was  Nelson's  brother,  and  his  wife  and  daughters 
of  a  more  generous  allowance  than  that  of  his  dead 
chiefs  widow  and  sisters! — this  distinguished 
man,  who  helped  to  plan  the  order  of  battle  at 
Trafalgar,  and  was  the  first  to  take  his  ship  into 
action  in  a  way  that  inflamed  the  pride  and  ad- 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  257 

miration  of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  and  made 
him  spontaneously  exclaim,  "  See,  Blackwood,  how 
that  noble  fellow  Collingwood  takes  his  ship  into 
battle!     How  I  envy  him!" 

No  one  knew  as  well  as  Nelson  that  his  com- 
rade, next  to  himself,  was  to  play  the  leading  part 
in  not  only  assuring  a  victory,  but  in  completely 
annihilating  the  French  and  Spanish  fleets.  Yet 
the  British  Government  of  that  day  counted  the 
services  he  had  rendered  to  the  nation  worthy  only 
of  a  peerage,  plus  the  same  pension  as  Nelson's 
widow:  i.  <?.,  he  was  to  have  a  pension  of  £2000 
a  year,  and  after  his  death  Lady  Collingwood  was 
to  have  the  munificent  sum  of  £1000  per  annum 
and  each  of  his  two  daughters  £500  a  year.  He 
never  drew  his  pension,  as  they  kept  him  in  the 
service  he  had  made  so  great  until  he  was  a  physi- 
cal wreck.  He  died  on  his  way  home  aboard 
the  Ville  de  Paris  on  the  7th  March,  18 10,  and 
was  laid  to  rest  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  alongside 
of  his  distinguished  friend  Lord  Nelson. 

I  have  already  drawn  attention  to  Nelson's 
blind  prejudice  to  and  hatred  of  the  French.  Col- 
lingwood was  tainted  with  the  same  one-sided 
views,  but  tempered  them  with  more  conven- 
tional language.  In  his  letters  to  Lady  Colling- 
wood he  expresses  delight  at  receiving  a  letter 
written  to  him  in  French  by  his  daughter,  and 
exhorts  the  mother  to  see  that  she  converses  when 
she  can  in  that  language,  and  to  remember  that 
she  is  never  to  admire  anything  French  but  the 
17 


258      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

language.  On  another  occasion  he  enjoins  his 
daughter  Sarah  to  write  every  day  a  translation 
of  English  into  French,  so  that  the  language  may 
soon  become  familiar  to  her;  and  then,  as  though 
he  regarded  these  instructions  as  unpatriotic,  he 
qualifies  them  by  reminding  her  "that  it  is  the 
only  thing  French  that  she  needs  to  acquire,  be- 
cause there  is  little  else  in  connection  with  that 
country  which  he  would  wish  her  to  love  or  imi- 
tate." A  kinsman  of  his,  after  the  battle  of 
Trafalgar,  wrote  to  inform  him  that  his  family 
were  descended  from,  and  allied  to,  many  great 
families,  Talebois  amongst  the  rest.  He  brushed 
the  intended  compliment  aside,  and  in  his  quaint 
manner  remarked  that  "he  had  never  troubled  to 
search  out  his  genealogy  but  all  he  could  say  was, 
that  if  he  got  hold  of  the  French  fleet,  he  would 
either  be  a  Viscount  or  nothing."  This  is  one  of 
the  very  rare  symptoms  of  vaunting  that  he  ever 
gave  way  to;  and  though  his  dislike  of  the  French 
was  as  inherent  as  Nelson's,  he  never  allowed 
his  chivalrous  nature  to  be  overruled  by  passion. 
In  a  letter  to  Lord  Radstock  in  1806  he  closes 
it  by  paying  a  high  tribute  to  the  unfortunate 
French  Admiral  Villeneuve  by  stating  "that  he 
was  a  well-bred  man,  and  a  good  officer  who  had 
nothing  of  the  offensive  vapourings  and  boastings 
in  his  manner  which  were,  perhaps,  too  commonly 
attributed  to  the  Frenchmen." 

Collingwood  was  a  man  of  high  ideals  with  a 
deeply  religious  fervour,  never  sinning  and  then 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  259 

repenting  as  Nelson  was  habitually  doing.  Physi- 
cal punishment  of  his  men  was  abhorrent  to  him, 
and  although  he  enforced  stern  discipline  on  his 
crew,  they  worshipped  him.  "I  cannot  under- 
stand," he  said,  "the  religion  of  an  officer  who 
can  pray  all  one  day  and  flog  his  men  all  the  next." 
His  method  was  to  create  a  feeling  of  honour 
amongst  his  men,  and  he  did  this  with  unfailing 
success,  without  adopting  the  harsh  law  of  the 
land  made  by  English  aristocrats. 

In  a  letter  to  his  wife,  dated  September,  1806, 
Collingwood  informs  her  that  the  Queen  of  Naples 
expected  to  be  put  on  the  throne  of  Naples  again 
and  had  intimated  the  desire  of  showing  her  grati- 
tude to  himself  by  creating  him  a  Sicilian  Duke 
and  giving  him  an  estate.  "If  a  Dukedom  is 
offered  to  me,"  he  tells  her,  "I  shall  return  my 
thanks  for  the  honour  they  wish  to  confer  upon 
me,  and  show  my  estimate  of  it  by  telling  them 
that  I  am  the  servant  of  my  sovereign  alone,  and 
can  receive  no  rewards  from  a  foreign  prince." 
Napoleon  denounced  Marie  Caroline,  Queen  of 
Naples,  as  "  a  wicked  shameless  woman,  who  had 
violated  all  that  men  held  most  sacred."  She 
had  ceased  to  reign,  and  by  her  crimes  she  had 
fulfilled  her  destiny.  Collingwood,  who  knew  her 
public  and  private  character  to  be  notoriously  un- 
trustworthy and  loose,  looked  upon  the  proposed 
honour  from  such  a  person  as  an  affront,  and 
refused  to  accept  it  if  offered.  Nelson,  on  the 
other  hand,  who  had  a  passion  for  window-dressing 


260      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

and  flattery,  accepted  with  a  flowing  heart  both 
a  dukedom  and  an  estate  from  their  Sicilian  Majes- 
ties. His  close  intimacy  with  the  Royal  Family, 
and  especially  with  the  Queen,  was  a  perpetual 
anxiety  to  his  loyal  and  devoted  friends. 

There  were  no  two  men  in  the  Service  who  had 
such  an  affectionate  regard  for  each  other  as 
Nelson  and  the  amiable  Northumbrian  Admiral, 
and  certainly  none  equalled  them  in  their  profes- 
sion or  in  their  devotion  to  their  King  and  country. 
Each  was  different  from  the  other  in  temperament 
and  character,  but  both  were  alike  in  superb 
heroism — the  one,  egotistically  untamed,  revelling 
at  intervals  in  lightning  flashes  of  eternal  ven- 
geance on  the  French  fleet  when  the  good  fortune 
of  meeting  them  should  come;  and  the  other, 
with  calm  reticence  elaborating  his  plans  and 
waiting  patiently  for  his  chance  to  take  part  in 
the  challenge  that  was  to  decide  the  dominion  of 
the  sea.  Each,  in  fact,  rivalled  in  being  a  spirit 
to  the  other.  Nelson  believed,  and  frequently 
said,  that  he  "wished  to  appear  as  a  godsend"; 
while  Collingwood,  in  more  humble  and  piercing 
phrase,  remarked  that  "while  it  is  England,  let 
me  keep  my  place  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle." 
The  sound  of  the  names  of  these  two  remarkable 
men  is  like  an  echo  from  other  far-off  days.  Both 
believed  that  God  was  on  their  side. 

Neither  of  them  knew  the  character  or  purpose 
of  the  exalted  man  on  whom  their  Government 
was    making    war.    Like    simple-minded,    brave 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  261 

sailors  as  they  were,  knowing  nothing  of  the  mys- 
teries of  political  jealousies  and  intrigue,  and  be- 
lieving that  the  men  constituting  the  Government 
must  be  of  high  mental  and  administrative  ability, 
they  assumed  that  they  were  carrying  out  a  flaw- 
less patriotic  duty,  never  doubting  the  wisdom  of 
it;  and  it  was  well  for  England  that  they  did  not. 
Men  always  fight  better  when  they  know  and 
believe  their  cause  is  just. 

Collingwood,  like  most  of  his  class,  gave  little 
thought  to  money  matters.  He  had  "no  ambi- 
tion," he  says,  "to  possess  riches/'  but  he  desired 
to  be  recognized  in  a  proper  way.  He  wished 
the  succession  of  his  title  to  be  conferred  on  his 
daughters,  as  he  had  no  son.  This  was  a  modest 
and  very  natural  desire,  considering  what  the 
nation  owed  to  him,  but  it  was  not  granted,  and 
the  shame  of  it  can  never  be  redeemed.  In  one 
of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Blackett  he  says  to  him,  "I 
was  exceedingly  displeased  at  some  of  the  lan- 
guage held  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  settle- 
ment of  the  pension  upon  my  daughters ;  it  was  not 
of  my  asking,  and  if  I  had  a  favour  to  ask,  money 
would  be  the  last  thing  I  would  beg  from  an  im- 
poverished country.  I  am  not  a  Jew,  whose  god 
is  gold;  nor  a  Swiss,  whose  services  are  to  be 
counted  against  so  much  money.  I  have  motives 
for  my  conduct  which  I  would  not  give  in  exchange 
for  a  hundred  pensions." 

These  lines  speak  eloquently  of  the  high  order 
of  this  illustrious  man.     He  despises  money,  but 


262      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

claims  it  as  his  right  to  have  proper  recognition 
of  his  services,  which  the  Government  should 
have  given  him  generously  and  with  both  hands. 
In  so  many  words  he  says,  "Keep  your  money, 
I  am  not  to  be  bought,  but  confer  on  me  if  you 
will  some  suitable  token  that  will  convince  me 
that  you  do  really,  in  the  name  of  the  nation,  ap- 
preciate what  I  have  done  for  it."  Services  such 
as  he  had  rendered  could  never  have  been  ade- 
quately rewarded  by  either  money  or  honours, 
no  matter  how  high  in  degree.  In  the  affairs  of 
money  these  two  great  admirals  were  pretty  simi- 
lar, except  that  Collingwood  knew  better  how 
to  spend  it  than  Nelson.  Both  were  generous, 
though  the  former  had  method  and  money  sense, 
while  the  latter  does  not  appear  to  have  had  either. 
He  was  accustomed  to  say  "that  the  want  of 
fortune  was  a  crime  which  he  could  never  get 
over."  Both  in  temperament  and  education  Col- 
lingwood was  superior  to  Nelson..  The  former 
knew  that  he  had  done  and  was  capable  of  doing 
great  deeds,  but  he  would  never  condescend  to 
seek  for  an  honour  reward;  while  Nelson,  who 
also  knew  when  he  had  distinguished  himself  in 
the  national  interest,  expected  to  be  rewarded, 
and  on  occasions  when  it  was  too  tardily  withheld, 
he  became  peevish,  whimpered  a  good  deal  about 
his  ill  treatment,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion 
showed  unbecoming  rage  at  being  neglected. 

After  Copenhagen,  the  wigs  were  fairly  on  the 
green  because  he  was  created  a  Viscount  instead 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  263 

of  an  Earl.  He  talked  a  good  deal  about  the 
Tower,  a  Dukedom,  or  Westminster  Abbey,  and 
had  ways  of  demanding  attention  for  which  Col- 
lingwood  had  neither  the  aptitude  nor  the  inclina- 
tion, though  his  naval  qualities  were  quite  equal 
to  Nelson's.  But  with  all  their  faults  and  vir- 
tues, there  was  never  any  petty  jealousy  between 
the  two  heroes,  who  lie  at  rest  side  by  side  in  the 
tombs  at  St.  Paul's.  Faithful  to  their  naval  or- 
thodoxy that  it  was  incumbent  for  every  Chris- 
tian sailor-man  to  wash  clean  his  conscience  when 
he  was  passing  from  time  into  eternity,  Nelson 
on  the  2 1st  October,  1805,  and  Collingwood  five 
years  later,  avowed  to  those  who  had  the  honour 
of  closing  their  eyes  for  evermore  that  they  "had 
not  been  great  sinners,"  and  then  slipped  into 
eternal  sleep;  each  of  them  leaving  behind  a 
name  that  will  live  and  descend  into  distant  ages. 
We  left  Villeneuve,  the  unfortunate  but  dis- 
tinctly brave  French  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
allied  fleet  at  Trafalgar,  aboard  the  Mars.  He 
was  subsequently  sent  a  prisoner  to  England,  and 
after  a  short  stay,  he  was  allowed  to  go  to  France, 
and  broke  his  journey  at  Rennes  on  his  way  to 
Paris.  The  poor  broken-hearted  fellow  was  found 
dead  in  his  room,  having  committed  suicide. 
There  is  not  the  remotest  foundation  for  the  un- 
worthy report  that  was  spread  that  he  was  put 
to  death  by  Napoleon's  orders.  The  Emperor 
was  much  too  big  a  man,  occupied  with  human 
projects  too  vast,  to  waste  a  moment's  thought 


264     Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

or  to  stain  his  name  over  an  unfortunate  admiral  who 
had  brought  his  fleet  to  grief  by  acting  against  his  in- 
structions. It  is  only  little  men  who  write,  not  that 
which  is  founded  on  fact  but  that  which  they  imagine 
will  appeal  to  the  popular  taste  of  the  moment;  and 
so  it  was  with  the  French  Emperor;  a  lot  of  scandal- 
mongers were  always  at  work  hawking  hither  and 
thither  their  poisonous  fabrications.  A  great  many 
people  get  their  living  by  appealing  to  the  lowest  pas- 
sions. Napoleon,  when  in  captivity,  referred  inci- 
dentally to  the  misfortunes  of  Villeneuve,  and  made 
the  following  statement  to  Dr.  O'Meara: 

Villeneuve  [said  he],  when  taken  prisoner  and  brought 
to  England,  was  so  much  grieved  at  his  defeat,  that  he 
studied  anatomy  on  purpose  to  destroy  himself.  For  this 
purpose  he  bought  some  anatomical  plates  of  the  heart, 
and  compared  them  with  his  own  body,  in  order  to  ascer- 
tain the  exact  situation  of  that  organ.  On  his  arrival  in 
France  I  ordered  that  he  should  remain  at  Rennes,  and 
not  proceed  to  Paris.  Villeneuve,  afraid  of  being  tried  by 
a  court-martial  for  disobedience  of  orders,  and  consequently 
losing  the  fleet,  for  I  had  ordered  him  not  to  sail  or  to  engage 
the  English,  determined  to  destroy  himself,  and  accordingly 
took  his  plates  of  the  heart,  and  compared  them  with  his 
breast.  Exactly  in  the  centre  of  the  plate  he  made  a  mark 
with  a  large  pin,  then  fixed  the  pin  as  near  as  he  could 
iudge  in  the  same  spot  in  his  own  breast,  shoved  it  in  to  the 
head,  penetrated  his  heart  and  expired.  When  the  room 
was  opened  he  was  found  dead;  the  pin  in  his  breast,  and 
a  mark  in  the  plate  corresponding  with  the  wound  in  his 
breast.  He  need  not  have  done  it  [continued  he],  as  he 
was  a  brave  man,  though  possessed  of  no  talent. x 

1  Napoleon  in  Exile,  vol.  i,  p.  56. 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  265 

I  have  given  this  communication  in  full  as  it 
appears  in  O'Meara's  book,  because  the  scribes 
would  have  it  that  Villeneuve  was  destroyed  by 
the  Emperor's  orders.  There  was  not  at  the  time, 
nor  has  there  ever  appeared  since,  anything  to 
justify  such  a  calumny  on  a  man  who  challenged 
the  world  to  make  the  charge  and  prove  that  he 
had  ever  committed  a  crime  during  the  whole  of 
his  public  career.  No  one  has  taken  up  the  chal- 
lenge except  in  sweeping  generalities  of  slander, 
which  are  easily  made  but  less  easy  to  substantiate. 
If  the  Emperor  had  really  wished  to  take  Ville- 
neuve's  life,  it  would  have  been  more  satisfactory 
to  have  him  condemned  to  death  by  a  court- 
martial  composed  of  his  countrymen  than  to  have 
the  already  ruined  man  secretly  destroyed  for  mere 
private  revenge.  The  common  sense  of  the  affair 
compels  one  to  repudiate  the  idea  of  the  Emperor's 
complicity  in  so  stupid  a  crime.  It  is  more  likely 
that  Napoleon  wished  to  save  him  from  the  con- 
sequences of  a  court-martial,  so  ordered  him  to 
remain  at  Rennes.  He  rarely  punished  offenders 
according  to  their  offences.  After  the  first  flush 
of  anger  was  over,  they  were  generally  let  down 
easy,  and  for  the  most  part  became  traitors 
afterwards. 

We  need  not  waste  time  or  space  in  dilating 
on  what  would  have  happened  to  Nelson  had  he 
put  at  defiance  the  authority  that  controlled  him 
and  the  irreparable  disaster  that  would  have 
followed.     Villeneuve  has  been  belauded  for  his 


266      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

gallantry  in  the  fight  at  Trafalgar;  indeed,  we 
learn,  from  sources  that  may  be  relied  upon,  that 
his  bravery,  dispositions  in  battle,  and  art  of 
enthusing  his  followers  could  not  be  surpassed. 
His  signals  to  the  fleet  were  almost  identical  with 
Nelson's.  Here  is  one:  "Celui  qui  ne  serait  pas 
dans  le  feu  ne  serait  pas  a  son  poste" ';  the  literal 
translation  of  which  is:  "He  who  would  not  be 
in  the  fire  would  not  be  at  his  post";  or,  "The 
man  who  would  hold  his  post  must  stand  fire," 
which  is  quite  an  inspiring  signal.  But  I  wonder 
what  the  eulogists  of  Villeneuve  would  have  writ- 
ten of  him  had  he  been  the  victor  instead  of  the 
defeated.  It  is  generous  to  give  praise  to  the 
unfortunate  Admiral  for  whom  Nelson  had  such 
an  aversion  and  who  was  constantly  threatened 
by  him  with  vigorous  chastisement  when  he 
caught  him ;  but  generosity  was  not  the  motive — 
it  was  only  part  of  the  loose-lipped,  unclean  policy 
of  decrying  Napoleon.  It  is  horrible,  ungrateful, 
and  foul  brutishness  of  the  Corsican  tyrant  to 
court-martial  so  amiable  and  brave  a  man  as  Ville- 
neuve because  he  proceeded  out  of  Cadiz  against 
orders  and  suffered  a  crushing  defeat!  It  is  quite 
permissible  for  a  French  admiral  to  put  authority 
at  defiance  if  doing  so  complies  with  the  senti- 
ments of  anti-Napoleon  writers,  who  were  either 
ill-informed,  purblind  critics  or  eaten  up  with  in- 
sincerity or  moral  malaria!  But  it  is  the  main- 
tenance of  discipline  to  have  men  like  Sir  John  Byng 
court-martialled  and  shot  after  being  tried,  it  is 


Nelson  and  his  Circle  267 

said,  by  a  not  entirely  impartial  court,  on  the 
supposition  that  he  had  neglected  his  duty  in  an 
engagement  with  the  French  off  Minorca  on  the 
20th  May,  1756,  and  committed  an  error  of  judg- 
ment. A  rather  remarkable  method  of  enforcing 
discipline,  to  shoot  an  admiral  for  an  error  of 
judgment! 

Take  another  case  of  high-ordered,  solemn 
devotion  to  discipline:  Sir  Robert  Calder,  who 
had  gained  an  important  victory  over  the  French 
at  Finisterre,  was  court-martialled,  condemned, 
and  ruined,  ostensibly  because  he  did  not  achieve 
a  greater  victory.  The  decisions  of  both  cases 
were  crimes,  not  desire  for  the  maintenance  of 
discipline.  It  was,  and  ever  will  be,  a  stain  on 
the  name  of  justice.  I  need  not  carry  this  further, 
except  to  say  that  according  to  the  solemn  logic  of 
some  writers,  it  was  murder  for  Napoleon  or  some 
of  his  ministers  to  have  the  Due  d'Enghien  shot 
for  having  conspired  with  others  for  the  overthrow 
of  the  established  French  Government,  but  it  is 
the  saintly  enforcement  of  discipline  to  have  a 
British  admiral  shot  and  another  ruined  for  no 
other  reason  than  an  error  of  judgment  on  the 
one  hand  and  an  insufficient  victory  on  the  other. 
Sir  Robert  Calder's  heart  was  broken  by  cruelty. 
Villeneuve  lost  his  fleet  and  killed  himself,  not 
that  he  had  anything  to  fear  from  the  decision  of 
the  court-martial — so  it  is  said  on  the  authority 
of  an  English  writer  of  note.  Certainly  he  had 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  Emperor,  who  has  indi- 


268       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

cated  that  he  had  no  intention  of  dealing  severely 
with  him.  It  was  fitting  that  he  should  be  repri- 
manded, and  no  doubt  he  would  have  been,  after 
which,  as  was  his  custom,  the  Emperor  would 
have  conferred  some  kindly  favour  upon  him. 
Serene  authors  have  entangled  themselves  a  good 
deal  over  this  matter  in  their  efforts  to  take  up  the 
impossible  position  of  making  the  Emperor  and 
not  Villeneuve  responsible  for  the  disaster  at 
Trafalgar  to  the  Spanish  and  French  fleet.  Of 
course,  Napoleon  was  badly  chagrined,  and  so 
would  the  King  of  England  have  been,  if  it  were 
thinkable  that  such  a  calamity  could  possibly 
have  befallen  any  British  fleet.  The  head  of  the 
French  nation  would  have  been  less  than  human 
had  he  not  felt  the  full  force  of  the  terrific  blow 
to  his  country,  and  especially  to  himself. 


TRAFALGAR,  21st  OCTOBER,  1805.     DETAILED 
LIST  OF  SHIPS  ENGAGED 

(A)    BRITISH    ORDER    OF    BATTLE,    WITH    THE 

NAMES    OF    THE    FLAG    OFFICERS    AND 

CAPTAINS 


Van, 

Ships 

Guns 

Victory 

IOO 

Temeraire 

98 

Neptune 

98 

Conqueror 

74 

Leviathan 

74 

Ajax 

74 

Orion 

74 

Agamemnon 

64 

Minotaur 

74 

Spartiate 

74 

Britannia 

IOO 

Africa 


Ships 
Euryalus 
Sirius 
Phoebe 
Naiad 
Pickle 

Intreprenante 
(cutter) 


64 


Guns 
36 
36 
36 
38 
12 
12 


or  Weather  Column 

Commanders 
Vice-Ad.  Vise.  Nelson 
Captain  T.  M.  Hardy 
Eliab  Harvey 
T.  F.  Freemantle 
Israel  Pellew 
H.  W.  Bayntun 
Lieut.  J.  Pilfold 
Edward  Codrington 
Sir  Edward  Berry 
C.  J.  M.  Mansfield 
Sir  F.  Laforey,  Bart. 
Rear-Ad.  Earl  Northesk 
Captain  Charles  Bullen 
Henry  Digby 


Killed 

Wounded 

51 

75 

47 

76 

10 

34 

3 

9 

4 

22 

— 

9 

1 

23 

2 

7 

3 

22 

3 

20 

Ic  10 

42 

18 
154 


Frigates 

Commanders 
Hon.  H.  Blackwood 
William  Prowse 
Hon.  T.  B.  Capel 
T.  Dundas 

Lieut.  J.  R.  Lapenotiere 
Lieut.  R.  B.  Young 

269 


44 


383 


270      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 


Rear,  or  Lee  Column 


Ships 

Guns 

Commanders 

Killed 

Wounded 

Royal  Sovereign  ioo 

Vice-Ad.  Collingwood 

47 

94 

Capt.  E.  Rotherham 

Mars 

74 

George  Duff 

29 

69 

Belleisle 

74 

William  Hargood 

33 

93 

Tonnant 

8o 

Charles  Tyler 

26 

50 

Bellerophon 

74 

John  Cooke 

27 

133 

Colossus 

74 

J.  N.  Morris 

40 

160 

Achille 

74 

Richard  King 

13 

59 

Polyphemus 

64 

Robert  Redmill 

2 

4 

Revenge 

74 

R.  Moorsom 

28 

5i 

Swiftsure 

74 

W.  G.  Rutherford 

9 

7 

Defence 

74 

George  Hope 

7 

29 

Thunderer 

74 

Lieut.  J.  Stockham 

4 

16 

Prince 

98 

Richard  Grindall 

— 

— 

Defiance 

74 

P.  C.  Durham 

17 

53 

Dreadnought 

98 

John  Conn 

7 
263 

26 

794 

Note. — Lieutenants  Pilfold  and  Stockham  were  acting  for  Captain 
W.  Brown  and  Lechmere,  absent  on  Sir  R.  Calder's  trial;  the  Lieuten- 
ants, W.  P.  Camby,  of  the  Bellerophon,  and  W.  Hannah,  of  the  Mars, 
having  their  Captains  killed,  the  whole  of  these  officers,  with  Lieutenant 
Quillam,  first  of  the  Victory,  were  made  Post  immediately. 


(J5)     A    LIST    OF    THE    COMBINED    FLEET 
FRANCE  AND  SPAIN,  SHOWING  HOW 
THEY  WERE  DISPOSED  OF 


OF 


1.  Spanish  ship,  San  Ildefonso,  74  guns,  Brigadier  Don 

Joseph  de  Varga,  sent  to  Gibraltar. 

2.  Spanish  ship,  San  Juan  Nepomuceno,  74  guns,  Briga- 

dier Don  Cosme  Cherruca,  sent  to  Gibraltar. 


Disposition  of  Fleets  at  Trafalgar  271 

3.  Spanish  ship,  Bahama,  74  guns,  Brigadier  Don  A.  D. 

Galiano,  sent  to  Gibraltar. 

4.  French  ship,  Swiftsure,  74  guns,  Monsieur  Villemadrin, 

sent  to  Gibraltar. 

5.  Spanish  ship,  Monarca,  74  guns,  Don  Teodoro  Argu- 

mosa,  wrecked  off  San  Lucar. 

6.  French  ship,  Fougeux,  74  guns,  Monsieur  Beaudouin, 

wrecked  off  Trafalgar,  all  perished,  and  30  of  the 
Temeraire's  men. 

7.  French  ship,  Indomitable,  84  guns,  Monsieur  Hubart, 

wrecked  off  Rota,  all  perished,  said  to  have  had 
1500  men  on  board. 

8.  French  ship,  Bucentaure,  80  guns,  Admiral  Villeneuve, 

Commander-in-Chief,  Captains  Prigny  and  Ma- 
gendie,  wrecked  on  the  Porques,  some  of  the  crew 
saved. 

9.  Spanish  ship,  San  Francisco  de  Asis,  74  guns,  Don 

Luis  de  Flores,  wrecked  near  Rota. 

10.  Spanish  ship,  El  Rayo,  100  guns,  Brigadier  Don  Hen- 

rique Macdonel,  taken  by  Donegal,  and  wrecked 
near  San  Lucar. 

1 1 .  Spanish  ship,  Neptuno,  84  guns,  Brigadier  Don  Caye- 

tano  Valdes,  wrecked  between  Rota  and  Catalina. 

12.  French  ship,  Argonaute,  74  guns,  Monsieur    Epron, 

on  shore  in  the  port  of  Cadiz.  (By  subsequent 
account  not  lost.) 

13.  French   ship,   Berwick,    74   guns,    Monseiur   Camas, 

wrecked  to  the  northward  of  San  Lucar. 

14.  French    ship,    Aigle,    74    guns,    Monsieur    Courage, 

wrecked  near  Rota. 

15.  French  ship,  Achille,  74  guns,  Monsieur  de  Nieuport, 

burnt  during  the  action. 

16.  French  ship,  Intrepide,  74  guns,  Monsieur  Infernet, 

burnt  by  the  Britannia. 

17.  Spanish  ship,  San  Augustin,  74  guns,  Brigadier  Don 

Felipe  X.  Cagigal,  burnt  by  the  Leviathan. 


272       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

18.  Spanish  ship,  Santissima  Trinidad,  140  guns,  Rear- 

Admiral  Don  Baltazar  H.  Cisneros,  Brigadier  Don 
F.  Uriate,  sunk  by  the  Prince  and  Neptune. 

19.  French  ship,  Redoubtable,  74  guns,  Monsieur  Lucas, 

sunk  astern  of  the  Swiftsure;  Temeraire  lost  13, 
and  Swiftsure  5  men,  in  her. 

20.  Spanish  ship,  Argonauta,  80  guns,  Don  Antonio  Parejo, 

sunk  by  the  Ajax. 

21.  Spanish  ship,  Santa  Anna,   112  guns,   Vice-Admiral 

Don  Ignacio  D'Alava,  Captain  Don  Joseph  de 
Guardequi,  taken,  but  got  into  Cadiz  in  the  gale, 
dismasted. 

22.  French  ship,  Algeziras,  74  guns,  Rear-Admiral  Magon 

(killed),  Captain  Monsieur  Bruaro,  taken,  but  got 
into  Cadiz  in  the  gale,  dismasted. 

23.  French   ship,    Pluton,    74   guns,    Monsieur   Cosmao, 

returned  to  Cadiz  in  a  sinking  state. 

24.  Spanish  ship,  San  Juste,  74  guns,  Don  Miguel  Caston, 

returned  to  Cadiz,  has  a  foremast  only. 

25.  Spanish  ship,  San  Leandro,  64  guns,  Don  Joseph  de 

Quevedo,  returned  to  Cadiz,  dismasted. 

26.  French  ship,  Le  Neptune,  84  guns,  Monsieur  Maistral, 

returned  to  Cadiz,  perfect. 

27.  French  ship,  Le  Heros,  74  guns,  Monsieur  Poulain, 

returned  to  Cadiz,  lower  masts  standing,  hoisted 
Admiral  Rossily's  flag. 

28.  Spanish  ship,  Principe  de  Asturias,  112  guns,  Admiral 

Gravina,  Captain  Don  Antonio  Escano,  returned 
to  Cadiz,  dismasted. 

29.  Spanish  ship,  Montanez,  Don  Francisco  Alcedo,  re- 

turned to  Cadiz. 

30.  French    ship,    Formidable,    80    guns,    Rear-Admiral 

Dumanoir,  escaped  to  the  southward,  with  the 
three  following. 

31.  French  ship,  Montblanc,  74  guns,  Monsieur  Villegries. 

32.  French  ship,  Scipion,  74  guns,  Monsieur  Berouger. 


Disposition  of  Fleets  at  Trafalgar  273 

33.     French  ship,   Du  Guay   Trouin,   74  guns,    Monsieur 
Toufflet. 

ABSTRACT 

At  Gibraltar  . .  . .  4 

Destroyed      . .  . .  . .  15 

In  Cadiz         . .  . .  . .  10 

Escaped          . .  . .  . .  . .       4 

33 


NAPOLEON 

AND  HIS  CONNECTION  WITH  THE 

WORLD  WAR  (1914-1918) 


275 


NAPOLEON'S  FAREWELL 

FROM   THE   FRENCH 

Farewell  to  the  Land,  where  the  gloom  of  my  Glory 

Arose  and  o'ershadowed  the  earth  with  her  name — 
She  abandons  me  now — but  the  page  of  her  story, 

The  brightest  or  blackest,  is  fill' d  with  my  fame. 
I  have  warred  with  a  world  which  vanquished  me  only 

When  the  meteor  of  conquest  allured  me  too  far; 
I  have  coped  with  the  nations  which  dread  me  thus  lonely, 

The  last  single  Captive  to  millions  in  war. 

Farewell  to  thee,  France !  when  thy  diadem  crown'd  me, 

I  made  thee  the  gem  and  the  wonder  of  earth, 
But  thy  weakness  decrees  I  should  leave  as  I  found  thee, 

Decay'd  in  thy  glory,  and  sunk  in  thy  worth. 
Oh !  for  the  veteran  hearts  that  were  wasted 

In  strife  with  the  storm,  when  their  battles  were  won— 
Then  the  Eagle,  whose  gaze  in  that  moment  was  blasted, 

Had  still  soar'd  with  eyes  fixed  on  victory's  sun! 

Farewell  to  thee,  France ! — but  when  Liberty  rallies 

Once  more  in  thy  regions,  remember  me  then, — 
The  violet  still  grows  in  the  depths  of  thy  valleys ; 

Though  wither'd,  thy  tears  will  unfold  it  again — 
Yet,  yet,  I  may  baffle  the  hosts  that  surround  us, 

And  yet  may  thy  heart  leap  awake  to  my  voice — 
There  are  links  which  must  break  in  the  chain  that  has 
bound  us, 

Then  turn  thee  and  call  on  the  Chief  of  thy  choice! 


276 


THE    EMPEROR   NAPOLEON   AFTER   HIS   ACCESSION. 
After  the  painting  by  Paul  Delaroche. 


NAPOLEON  AND  HIS  CONNECTION  WITH  THE 
WORLD  WAR 


I 


Napoleon,  when  at  the  height  of  his  fame,  was 
looked  upon  by  the  European  Powers  as  a  man 
whose  lust  of  conquest  was  a  terrible  menace  to 
all  constituted  authority.  The  oligarchies  thought 
themselves  bound  to  combine  against  him  in  order 
to  reseat  the  Bourbons  on  the  throne  of  France 
and  restore  law  and  order  to  that  distracted 
country.     What  a  travesty  of  the  actual  facts ! 

The  people  of  France  had  risen  against  the 
tyranny  and  oppression  of  the  French  kings  and 
nobles,  and  out  of  the  welter  of  the  Revolution 
Napoleon  rose  to  power  and,  by  his  magnetic 
personality,  welded  the  chaotic  elements  into 
unity,  framed  laws  which  are  still  in  operation,  and 
led  his  country  to  wonderful  heights  of  glory. 

Well  may  the  crowned  heads  of  Europe  have 
feared  this  man,  whose  genius  put  all  their  mediocre 
and  unenlightened  achievements  in  the  shade. 
Had  they  been  blessed  with  the  same  vision  as  he, 
they  would   not   have   opposed   but   co-operated 

277 


278      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

with  him,  by  introducing  into  their  own  constitu- 
tions saner  laws  such  as  some  of  those  in  the  Code 
Napoleon.  But  instead  of  this,  they  began  a 
campaign  of  Press  vilification,  and  Napoleon's 
every  act  was  held  up  as  the  deed  of  a  monster 
of  iniquity.  Plots,  open  and  secret,  to  dethrone 
him  were  continually  in  progress,  only  to  be 
frustrated  by  the  genius  of  the  man  of  the  people. 
As  an  instance  of  this,  and  of  the  one-sided  view 
taken  by  all  ranks  and  classes  of  Napoleon's  op- 
ponents, let  us  contrast  two  cases  which  are  in 
some  respects  parallel.  The  many  plots  to  assas- 
sinate the  First  Consul — especially  the  one  that 
very  nearly  succeeded  when  he  was  on  his  way  to 
the  opera — and  the  knowledge  that  an  organized 
band  of  conspirators  were  in  red-hot  activity  and, 
headed  by  the  Due  d'Enghien,  Cadoudal,  Moreau, 
and  Pichegru,  were  determined  to  kill  the  head  of 
the  State,  overthrow  the  government,  and  re- 
establish the  Bourbon  dynasty,  caused  the  Due 
to  be  arrested,  tried  by  his  fellow-countrymen, 
and  found  guilty  of  the  charges  brought  against 
him,  and,  by  the  blundering  of  Savary,  afterwards 
Duke  of  Rovigo,  and  the  persistence  of  Murat, 
the  death  penalty  was  carried  out  and  he  was  shot. 
Had  he  been  permitted  to  live  another  twenty- 
four  hours,  Napoleon  would  unquestionably  have 
pardoned  him,  though  he  never  doubted  the  justice 
of  the  sentence.  Much  political  capital  has  been 
made  in  this  country  against  Napoleon  for  even 
sanctioning  his  arrest  and  in  not  preventing  the 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     279 

capital  sentence  of  the  court  from  being  carried 
out.1 

Unquestionably,  Napoleon  regretted  the  execu- 
tion, and  would  have  granted  a  free  pardon  had 
some  one  not  blundered  or  been  too  zealous  in 
what  they  conceived  to  be  his  and  the  country's 
best  interests.  Almost  every  writer  on  this  sub- 
ject is  strong  in  his  condemnation  of  the  execution, 
and  of  Napoleon  for  not  taking  surer  steps  to 
prevent  it.  But  in  judging  him  in  regard  to  this 
matter,  it  is  only  fair  to  take  into  account  that 
he  was  the  ruler  of  a  great  empire.  Whether  he 
became  so  by  force  or  not,  does  not  matter;  he 
saved  the  Revolution,  and  had  already  brought 
some  form  of  order  out  of  bloody  chaos. 

He  had  already  become  the  popular  head  of  the 
French  nation,  and  it  devolved  upon  him  to  take 
the  most  minute  precautions  against  the  disturb- 
ing effects  of  the  secret  and  avowed  conspirators 
who  directed  their  operations  against  his  life  and 
the  overthrow  of  his  government  from  London. 
The  precautions  taken  were  drastic,  skilfully 
organized,  and  far-reaching,  and  his  agents  kept 
him  advised  of  the  danger  that  continually  beset 
him.     Even  though  he  had  no  thought  of  repriev- 

1  There  are  many  conflicting  accounts  of  Napoleon's  part  in  the 
arrest,  trial,  and  his  intention  of  pardoning  the  Due  d'Enghien.  It  has 
been  stated  that  he  gave  Murat  his  word  that  the  Due  would  be  par- 
doned, and  when  Murat  heard  that  the  Prince  had  been  shot,  he  ex- 
claimed, "There  has  been  treachery!"  On  the  other  hand,  Bertrand 
was  steadfast  in  his  belief  that  Murat  urged  his  immediate  execution  on 
the  grounds  that  if  it  was  not  done  at  once,  Napoleon  would  grant 
clemency. 


280      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

ing  the  Due,  and  deliberately  allowed  him  to  be 
shot,  the  act  of  self-preservation,  extreme  though 
it  may  appear,  can  hardly  be  termed,  under  the 
circumstances,  unwarranted.  It  was  a  period  of 
wild,  uncontrollable  passion,  and  the  survivors  of 
the  old  aristocracy  hated  the  man  of  genius  who 
had  risen  to  power  from  the  ranks  of  the  people 
to  take  the  place  of  the  Bourbons.  This  was 
the  canker  that  stimulated  their  enmity. 

Had  the  Due  d'Enghien  kept  himself  aloof  from 
conspirators,  and  been  willing  to  recognize  the 
facts  he  would  never  have  been  molested.  He  took 
the  risk  of  co-operating  with  desperate  men,  and 
paid  the  penalty  by  being  shot  on  the  24th  March, 
1804,  at  6.00  a.m.,  at  Vincennes.  Had  the  ruler  of 
any  state  in  Europe  carried  out  a  death-sentence 
for  the  same  reason  and  under  the  same  circum- 
stances, it  would  have  been  regarded  as  well- 
merited  punishment,  and  the  Press  would  have 
preached  the  gospel  of  warning  to  evil  doers.  But 
with  Napoleon  it  was  different.  He  was  an  inter- 
loper who  had  nothing  in  common  with  the  galaxy 
of  monarchs  who  ruled  Europe  at  that  time.  Sub- 
sequently they  licked  his  boots,  not  for  love,  but 
through  fear.  The  shooting  of  the  Due  was  a 
fine  opportunity  for  his  enemies.  They  sedu- 
lously nursed  the  Press,  published  books  and  pam- 
phlets in  every  language,  and  employed  the  most 
poisoned  pen  that  could  be  bought  to  portray  the 
future  ruler  of  kings  in  terms  of  obloquy.  The 
performance  of  the  scribes  who  direct   the  pen, 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     281 

which  is  said  to  be  mightier  than  the  sword,  is 
enough  to  kill  any  one  with  a  real  sense  of  humour. 
Some  of  the  literary  productions  which  were  to 
send  the  greatest  of  living  men  off  the  face  of  the 
earth  are  quite  grotesque  in  their  feminine,  shrill 
advocacy  of  force  towards  the  "eater  of  pigs"; 
the  "  Anti-Christ ";  and  the  murderer  of  a  kindly 
disposed  gentleman  who  was  on  an  innocent  visit 
to  the  frontier  of  France  for  the  purpose  of  nego- 
tiating a  few  private  matters  that  had  no  political 
significance;  what  if  he  were  one  of  the  leaders 
of  a  band  of  fine,  desperate  fellows  who  had  com- 
bined, and  sworn  to  rid  France  of  the  Usurper, 
even  at  the  risk  of  death!  This  being  their  aim 
and  heroic  determination,  they  had  no  ground  of 
complaint  if  the  iron  hand  which  ruled  the  country 
took  measures  to  prevent  them  from  carrying  out 
their  beneficent  intentions.  Of  course,  I  give  the 
sense  and  not  the  actual  words  of  the  gallant 
writers  of  that  time  who,  with  a  glare  in  their  lion 
eye  (judging  from  the  style  of  their  vapourings), 
thought  that  Napoleon  could  never  survive  so 
vigorous  a  stream  of  invective !  What  loose  fabri- 
cations have  been  scattered  over  the  earth  about 
this  regrettable  incident,  and  what  abominable 
cant  has  been  sent  forth  extolling  the  virtues  of 
men  like  the  unfortunate  Due,  who  put  the  law 
at  defiance  by  secretly  carrying  out  a  purpose 
that  he  knew  was  pregnant  with  danger  to  himself! 
Let  us  contrast,  if  we  can,  the  Due  d'Enghien's 
reckless  gamble,  the  consequences  of  which  have 


282      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

been  used  so  consistently  to  blacken  the  fame  of 
the  Emperor  Napoleon,  with  Nelson's  connection 
with  the  hanging  of  the  rebel  prince  Caraccioli; 
of  the  latter  little  has  been  said,  though  the  shoot- 
ing of  the  Due  seems  to  have  been  more  justifiable 
than  the  hanging  of  the  prince,  who  was  an  old 
man.  Both  were  tried  and  condemned  to  death 
by  men  who,  it  is  said,  were  prejudiced  against 
them.  Nelson  could  have  saved  the  aged  Admiral 
had  his  heart  been  free  from  revenge  and  his  mind 
free  from  the  influence  of  Emma  Hamilton.  The 
guilt  of  the  admiral's  death  must  eternally  lie  at 
his  door.  The  outrage  can  never  be  effaced,  and 
must  for  all  time  be  associated  with  the  mean 
executioners  who,  to  begin  with,  had  naught  but 
vengeance  in  their  minds.  Nelson  was  an  English- 
man entrusted  with  England's  high  sense  of  hon- 
our and  love  of  compassion,  and  in  its  name  he 
stained  its  reputation  for  fair  dealing.  On  enter- 
ing the  Bay  of  Naples,  a  flag  of  truce  was  fly- 
ing at  the  mast-head  of  the  Seahorse  and  at  the 
castles  of  Nuovo  and  Uovo.  The  treaty  had  been 
ratified  by  Captain  Foote,  a  high-minded  officer.1 
Nelson  did  not  approve  of  the  truce,  nor  did  Lady 
Hamilton,  who  was  aboard  the  Foudroyant.     One 

1  The  terms  of  capitulation  were  agreed  to  and  signed  by  Ruffo,  the 
Russian  and  Turkish  commanders,  and  by  Captain  Foote,  representing 
the  British  Government.  Thirty-six  hours  afterwards  Nelson  arrived 
in  the  Bay  of  Naples,  and  cancelled  the  treaty.  Captain  Foote  was  sent 
away,  and  the  shocking  indefensible  campaign  of  Nelson's  carried  out. 
Nothing  during  the  whole  of  Napoleon's  career  can  match  this  terrible 
act  of  Nelson's. 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War      283 

can  almost  see  this  brazen  figure  standing  on  the 
quarter-deck  of  this  British  ship  of  war  calling 
out  to  Nelson,  "Haul  down  the  flag  of  truce, 
Bronte.  There  must  be  no  truce  with  rebels." 
It  almost  takes  one's  breath  away  to  think  that 
a  man  in  Nelson's  position  should  have  allowed 
private  feelings  to  enter  into  and  influence  his 
professional  duty.  Every  now  and  again  we  get 
glimpses  of  this  blatant  paramour  of  his  being 
allowed  to  assert  herself  in  matters  which  involved 
the  honour  of  Great  Britain.  We  are  anxious  to 
believe  that  Nelson  put  some  limit  to  this  lady's 
interference  in  matters  of  high  naval  policy,  but 
he  seems  to  have  been  such  a  fool  with  women 
that  almost  anything  ridiculous  can  be  believed 
of  him  where  they  were  concerned.  Both  of 
them  figure  badly  in  the  Uovo  and  Nuovo  and 
Caraccioli  affair.  The  garrison  there  was  so 
vigorously  bombarded  that  it  was  driven  to  ca- 
pitulate, but  only  on  condition  that  the  safety  of  the 
garrison  would  be  guaranteed.  Captain  Foote  at 
once  agreed  to  this,  and  to  seeing  that  it  was  duly 
carried  out.  One  of  the  reasons  that  led  Captain 
Foote  so  readily  to  agree  to  the  conditions  sub- 
mitted to  him  was  the  extreme  strength  of  the 
forts,  which  could  have  pounded  the  city  to  pieces. 
The  other  was  trie  desire  to  spare  human  life.  What 
need  was  there  for  Nelson  to  take  umbrage  at 
and  violate  the  treaty  made  by  Foote  in  the  Brit- 
ish name?  Foote  had  made  a  good  bargain  by 
getting  possession  of  the  forts,  and  a  better  and 


284      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

nobler  one  in  making  it  part  of  his  policy  to  save 
human  life.  We  wonder  whether  Nelson's  anger 
did  not  arise  from  his  being  deprived  of  some  of 
the  glory  himself.  He  was  desperately  fond  of  it ! 
In  any  case,  he  let  down  England's  name  badly 
over  the  whole  transaction. 

Fox  made  a  speech  on  it  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons which  was,  and  will  ever  continue  to  be,  an 
awful  indictment.  There  is  nothing  in  the  French 
Revolution,  or  in  the  whole  of  Napoleon's  career, 
that  can  be  compared  with  it  for  ferocity.  Great 
efforts  were  made  to  fix  the  responsibility  for 
breach  of  faith  on  Captain  Foote,  but  they  failed, 
since  there  was  not  a  vestige  of  foundation  on 
which  a  case  could  be  made  against  him,  as  the 
documents  conclusively  proved.  He  demanded 
a  court-martial,  but  his  friends  prevailed  upon 
him  to  let  his  case  rest  on  the  conclusive  facts 
which  were  produced  and  made  public  and  which 
have  never  been  questioned.  There  cannot  be 
found  a  more  astonishing  revelation  of  perfidy  or 
inhuman  violence  in  the  archives  of  Europe  than 
that  related  by  Mr.  Fox.  Here  is  an  extract 
from  his  amazing  speech: — 

When  the  right  honourable  gentleman  speaks  of  the  last 
campaign,  he  does  not  mention  the  horrors  by  which  some 
of  these  successes  were  accompanied;  Naples,  for  instance, 
has  been,  among  others  (what  is  called)  delivered;  and  yet, 
if  I  am  rightly  informed,  it  has  been  stained  and  polluted  by 
murders  so  ferocious,  and  cruelties  so  abhorrent,  that  the 
heart  shudders  at  the  recital.     It  has  been  said,  that  not 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War      285 

only  were  the  miserable  victims  of  the  rage  and  brutality 
of  the  fanatics  savagely  murdered,  but  that  in  many  in- 
stances their  flesh  was  devoured  by  the  cannibals,  who  are 
the  advocates,  if  the  rumours  which  are  circulated  be  true. 
I  will  mention  a  fact  to  give  Ministers  the  opportunity,  if  it 
be  false,  to  wipe  away  the  stain  that  must  otherwise  affix  on 
the  British  name.  It  is  said  that  a  party  of  the  Republican 
inhabitants  at  Naples  took  shelter  in  the  fortress  of  Castle 
del  Uovo.  They  were  besieged  by  a  detachment  from  the 
royal  army,  to  whom  they  refused  to  surrender,  but  de- 
manded that  a  British  officer  should  be  brought  forward, 
and  to  him  they  capitulated.  They  made  terms  with  him 
under  the  sanction  of  the  British  name.  It  was  agreed  that 
their  persons  and  property  should  be  safe,  and  that  they  should 
be  conveyed  to  Toulon.  They  were  accordingly  put  on  board 
a  vessel,  but  before  they  sailed,  their  property  was  con- 
fiscated, numbers  of  them  taken  out,  thrown  into  dungeons, 
and  some  of  them,  I  understand,  notwithstanding  the 
British  guarantee,  absolutely  executed. i 

This  appalling  narrative,  which  was  never  re- 
futed, is  really  too  horrible  to  ponder  over.  It 
puts  in  the  shade  any  responsibility  Napoleon  had 
for  the  death  of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  It  is  needless 
to  enlarge  on  the  silly  and  altogether  baseless 
attacks  that  were  not  only  allowed  to  be  made, 
but,  we  have  good  grounds  for  stating,  were  manu- 
factured by  members  of  the  Government  and  their 
agents,  and  circulated  for  the  purpose  of  distract- 
ing the  public  mind  from  their  own  iniquities,  and 
inflaming  bitter  passions  and  prejudices  by  ac- 
cusing Napoleon  of  deeds  of  blood  for  which  he 
was  in  no  greater  degree  responsible  than  were 

1  Italics  are  the  author's. 


286      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

they.  The  nations  were  all  out  for  blood  at  that 
period  (just  as  they  are  now),  and  each  claimed 
a  monopoly  of  all  the  virtues.  "Down,  down, 
with  the  French  is  my  constant  prayer,"  shouts 
our  greatest  hero,  and  by  way  of  addendum,  he 
announces  in  Christlike  accents  that  he  hates  a 
Frenchman  as  he  hates  the  devil.  "Down,  down, 
with  the  British  is  our  constant  prayer,"  shout 
back  the  French,  who  are  at  present  our  allies 
against  another  nation  who  were  our  allies  against 
them  at  that  time,  showing  that  Fraternity  is  decid- 
edly a  possible  consummation,  though  it  fluctuates 
from  one  to  another  with  amazing  eccentricity. 

In  the  name  of  this  fraternal  spirit,  we  see  the 
great  Napoleon  surrounded  by  a  hotbed  of  assas- 
sins demanding  his  life  in  the  name  of  the  Founder 
of  our  faith.  He  was  the  ruler,  as  I  have  said,  of 
a  vast  Empire,  sworn  to  protect  its  laws,  its  dignity, 
and  its  citizen  rights  by  defending  himself  and  his 
country  against  either  treachery,  plotters  against 
his  life,  or  open  enemies,  no  matter  from  what 
quarter  they  came.  The  Due  d'Enghien  violated 
the  law,  and  was  therefore  as  liable  to  suffer  the 
consequences  as  any  peasant  or  middle-class  per- 
son would  have  been.  But  this  did  not  meet  with 
the  approval  of  the  international  oligarchy,  so 
they  set  up  a  screaming  factory  and  blared  this 
murderous  deed  into  the  minds  of  all  the  Western 
world.  These  fervent  professors  of  the  Christian 
faith  were  in  no  way  particular  as  to  the  form  or 
authenticity  of  their  declamatory  ebullitions. 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     287 

But  what  of  Nelson?  He  was  a  subject  of  his 
King,  employed  by  the  King's  Government  under 
certain  plenary  powers  to  fight  the  country's 
battles,  defend  its  right,  uphold  its  dignity,  guard 
its  honour,  and  commit  no  violence.  That  is,  in 
plain  English,  he  was  to  play  the  game.  But  he 
assumed  an  authority  that  no  government  of 
England  would  have  dared  to  have  given  him  by 
revoking  the  word  of  honour  of  a  distinguished 
officer  who  had  pledged  England's  word  that  the 
lives  of  the  beleaguered  men  would  be  spared.  I 
think  the  writer  of  the  gospel  of  "Let  brotherly 
love  continue,"  and  the  rhetoricians  who  claim 
that  Britons  have  no  competitors  in  the  science 
of  moral  rectitude,  will  have  a  hard  task  to  square 
the  unworthy  declamations  against  Napoleon's 
responsibility  in  the  Due  d'Enghien  affair  with 
their  silence  on  Nelson's  in  breaking  the  truce 
already  referred  to,  and  the  awful  consequences 
set  forth  in  Mr.  Fox's  speech,  which  is  reminiscent 
of  the  powerful  disciplinary  methods  of  that  manly 
martinet  Ivan  the  Terrible,  who  was  responsible 
for  the  massacre  of  men  by  the  thousand,  flaying 
of  prisoners  alive,  collecting  pyramids  of  skulls, 
slaughtering  of  innocent  men,  and  the  free  use  of 
other  ingenious  forms  of  refined  scientific  torture 
which  tires  the  spirit  to  relate.  It  is  hard  to  for- 
give Nelson  for  having  smirched  his  own  and 
England's  name  with  atrocities  so  terrible.  But 
more  humiliating  still  to  British  honour  is  the  fact 
that  his  part  in  the  breaking  of  the  treaty  was 


288      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

dictated  to  him  from  the  quarter-deck  of  the 
Foudroyant  by  a  woman  whom  my  vocabulary 
is  unable  to  describe  in  fitting  terms.  I  shall 
emphasize  this  masculine  female's  orders  to  Nelson 
by  quoting  them  again.  Were  it  not  for  the  comic 
impertinence  of  the  order,  I  think  it  would  almost 
make  me  feel  the  bitterness  of  death.  Nelson 
seems  to  have  been  the  victim  of  her  dominating 
spirit,  though  the  evidence  in  support  of  him  swal- 
lowing the  whole  dose  of  medicine  is  quite  feeble. 
That  he  swallowed  too  much  of  it  will  always 
detract  from  his  fame.  "Haul  down  the  flag  of 
truce,  Bronte.  No  truce  with  rebels."  Nelson 
lost  a  great  opportunity  of  adding  romance  to 
his  naval  glory  by  neglecting  his  imperative  duty 
in  not  putting  Sir  William  Hamilton's  wife  in  irons 
or  having  her  thrown  into  the  sea.  A  story  of 
this  kind  would  have  sounded  better,  and  its 
effect  would  have  electrified  the  world  in  subse- 
quent days,  and  have  given  scope  to  the  talents 
of  actors  and  authors  who  are  eager  for  dramatic 
copy. 

I  think  Cardinal  Ruffo  would  have  been  a  sup- 
porter of  imposing  some  form  of  disciplinary 
restraint  on  Emma  Hamilton.  He  did  strongly 
insist  on  the  treaty  being  honourably  adhered  to, 
but  his  view  was  overruled,  and  he  retired  in 
consequence  in  bitter  indignation. 

So  much  for  the  vaunted  fairness  and  impar- 
tiality of  our  treatment  of  Napoleon! 

It  is  only  when  we  come  to  study  the  life  of  this 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War      289 

man  that  we  realize  how  he  towered  above  all  his 
contemporaries  in  thought,  word,  and  deed.  Na- 
poleon's authentic  doings  and  sayings  are  wonder- 
ful in  their  vast  comprehensiveness  and  sparkling 
vision,  combined  with  flawless  wisdom.  When  we 
speak  or  think  of  him,  it  is  generally  of  his  military 
genius  and  achievements  and  of  what  we  term  his 
"gigantic  ambition";  and  in  this  latter  conclu- 
sion the  platitudinarians,  with  an  air  of  original- 
ity, languidly  affirm  that  this  was  the  cause  of  his 
ruin,  the  grandeur  of  which  we  do  not  understand. 
But  never  a  word  is  said  or  thought  of  our  own 
terrible  tragedies,  nor  of  the  victories  we  were 
compelled  to  buy  in  order  to  secure  his  downfall. 
His  great  gifts  as  a  lawgiver  and  statesman  are 
little  known  or  spoken  of.  Nelson's  views  of 
him  were  of  a  rigid,  stereotyped  character.  He 
only  varied  in  his  wild  manner  of  describing  him 
as  a  loathsome  despot,  whose  sole  aim  was  to 
make  war  everywhere  and  to  invade  England  and 
annihilate  her  people. 

II 

In  the  light  of  what  is  happening  now  in  the 
World  War,  1914-1917,  and  the  world-wide  views 
expressed  about  the  German  Kaiser,  it  may  be 
interesting  to  write  Pitt's  opinion  of  Napoleon, 
though  they  are  scarcely  to  be  mentioned  in  the 
same  breath.  The  former,  who  is  the  creator  of 
the  world-tragedy,  is  a  mere  shadow  in  compari- 


290      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

son  to  the  great  genius  of  whom  Muller,  the  Swiss 
historian,  says:  "Quite  impartially  and  truly,  as 
before  God,  I  must  say  that  the  variety  of  his 
knowledge,  the  acuteness  of  his  observations,  the 
solidity  of  his  understanding  (not  dazzling  wit), 
his  grand  and  comprehensive  views,  filled  me  with 
astonishment,  and  his  manner  of  speaking  to  me 
with  love  for  him.  By  his  genius  and  his  disin- 
terested goodness,  he  has  also  conquered  me." 
But  I  give  another  authority,  Wieland,  the  German 
author,  who  was  disillusioned  when  he  had  the 
honour  of  a  conversation  with  Napoleon  on  the 
field  of  Jena.  Amongst  the  many  topics  they 
spoke  of  was  the  restoration  of  public  worship  in 
France  by  Napoleon.  In  his  reply  to  the  German 
writer  as  to  why  religion  was  not  more  philosophi- 
cal and  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  times, 
Napoleon  replied,  "My  dear  Wieland,  religion  is 
not  meant  for  philosophers!  They  have  no  faith 
either  in  me  or  my  priests.  As  to  those  who  do 
believe,  it  would  be  difficult  to  give  them,  or  leave 
them  too  much  of  the  marvellous.  If  I  had  to 
frame  a  religion  for  philosophers,  it  would  be  just 
the  reverse  of  that  of  the  credulous  part  of  man- 
kind." Wieland's  testimony  concerning  Napoleon 
is  quite  as  appreciative  as  that  of  Muller,  and 
coming  from  him  to  the  great  conqueror  of  his 
native  land  makes  it  an  invaluable  piece  of  im- 
partial history  which  reverses  the  loose  and  vin- 
dictive libels  that  were  insidiously  circulated  by  a 
gang  of  paid  scoundrels  in  order  to  prejudice  public 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     291 

opinion  against  him.  Wieland,  among  other  eulo- 
gies of  him,  says:  "I  have  never  beheld  any  one 
more  calm,  more  simple,  more  mild  or  less  ostenta- 
tious in  appearance;  nothing  about  him  indicated 
the  feeling  of  power  in  a  great  monarch."  He 
conversed  with  him  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  "to 
the  great  surprise  of  the  whole  assembly." 

Here  we  have  a  brief  but  very  high  testimony 
from  two  men  of  literary  distinction,  who  had 
formed  their  impressions  by  personal  contact. 
The  present  writer's  belief  is  that  had  members 
of  the  British  Government  been  guided  by  reason 
and  sound  judgment  instead  of  blind,  wicked 
prejudice;  had  they  accepted  overtures  made  to 
them  from  time  to  time  by  the  head  of  the  French 
nation  during  his  rule,  we  should  not  have  been 
engaged  during  the  last  five  years  in  a  world  war 
watering  the  earth  with  the  blood  of  our  race  with 
reckless  extravagance.  The  great  soldier-states- 
man foretold  what  would  happen.  What  irony 
that  we  should  be  in  deadly  conflict  with  the  Power 
which,  as  an  ally,  helped  to  destroy  him  and  is 
now  engaged  in  frantic  efforts  to  destroy  us !  Had 
Pitt  and  those  who  acted  with  him  been  endowed 
with  human  wisdom,  he  would  not  have  written  the 
following  lines,  but  would  have  held  out  the  olive 
branch  of  peace  and  good-will  to  men  on  earth: 

I  see  [says  Pitt  in  a  scrap  of  MS.  found  amongst  his 
papers]  various  and  opposite  qualities — all  the  great  and 
all  the  little  passions  unfavourable  to  public  tranquillity 
united  in  the  breast  of  one  man,  and  of  that  man,  unhappily, 


292       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

whose  personal  caprice  can  scarce  fluctuate  for  an  hour 
without  affecting  the  destiny  of  Europe.  I  see  the  inward 
workings  of  fear  struggling  with  pride  in  an  ardent,  enter- 
prising, and  tumultuous  mind.  I  see  all  the  captious  jeal- 
ousy of  conscious  usurpation,  dreaded,  detested,  and 
obeyed,  the  giddiness  and  intoxication  of  splendid  but  un- 
merited success,  the  arrogance,  the  presumption,  the  self- 
will  of  unlimited  and  idolized  power,  and  more  dreadful 
than  all  in  the  plenitude  of  authority,  the  restless  and  in- 
cessant activity  of  guilty  but  unsated  ambition. 

This  scrap  of  mere  phrases  indicates  a  mind 
that  was  far  beneath  the  calibre  of  that  of  a  real 
statesman.  It  was  a  terrible  fate  for  Great  Brit- 
ain to  have  at  the  head  of  the  Government  a  man 
whose  public  life  was  a  perpetual  danger  to  the 
State.  Had  Pitt  been  the  genius  his  eloquence 
led  his  contemporaries  to  believe  he  was,  he  would 
have  availed  himself  of  the  opportunities  the 
Great  Figure,  who  was  making  the  world  rock 
with  his  genius,  afforded  the  British  Government 
from  time  to  time  of  making  peace  on  equitable 
terms.  But  Pitt's  vision  of  the  large  things  that 
constituted  human  existence  was  feeble  and  nar- 
rowed down  to  the  nightmare  of  the  "tumultuous 
mind"  whose  sole  aim  was  the  conquest  of  the 
continent  of  Europe,  and  the  invasion  of  these 
islands.  The  "usurper"  must  be  subdued  by  the 
force  of  arms,  the  squandering  of  British  wealth, 
and  the  sanguinary  sacrifice  of  human  lives.  That 
was  the  only  diplomacy  his  mental  organism  could 
evolve.     He  used  his  power  of  expression,  which 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     293 

was  great,  to  such  good  purpose  that  his  theories 
reflected  on  his  supporters.  Had  Pitt  been  tal- 
ented in  matters  of  international  diplomacy,  as 
he  was  in  the  other  affairs  of  government,  he  would 
have  seized  the  opportunity  of  making  the  Peace 
of  Amiens  universal  and  durable.  It  is  futile  to 
contend  that  Napoleon  was  irreconcilable.  His 
great  ambition  was  to  form  a  concrete  friendship 
with  our  government,  which  he  foresaw  could  be 
fashioned  into  a  continental  arrangement,  intricate 
and  entangled  as  all  the  elements  were  at  the  time. 
Napoleon  never  ceased  to  deplore  the  impossibility 
of  coming  to  any  reciprocal  terms  with  England 
so  long  as  Pitt's  influence  was  in  the  ascendant, 
and  he  and  a  large  public  in  France  and  in  this 
country  profoundly  believed  that  Fox  had  not 
only  the  desire  but  the  following,  and  all  the  diplo- 
matic qualities  to  bring  it  about.  Any  close,  im- 
partial student  of  history,  free  from  the  popular 
prejudices  which  assailed  Napoleon's  origin  and 
advent  to  power,  cannot  but  concede  the  great 
possibilities  of  this  view. 

It  was  only  statesmen  like  Fox  who  had  un- 
confused  perception,  and  inveighed  against  the 
stupidity  of  ministers  acclaimed  by  an  ignorant 
public  as  demigods.  Napoleon's  starting-points 
were  to  "Surmount  great  obstacles  and  attain 
great  ends.  There  must  be  prudence,  wisdom, 
and  dexterity."  "  We  should,"  he  said,  "  do  every- 
thing by  reason  and  calculation,  estimating  the 
trouble,  the  sacrifice,  and  the  pleasure  entailed 


294      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

in  gaining  a  certain  end,  in  the  same  way  as  we 
work  out  any  sum  in  arithmetic  by  addition  and 
subtraction.  But  reason  and  logic  should  be  the 
guiding  principle  in  all  we  do.  That  which  is 
bad  in  politics,  even  though  in  strict  accordance 
with  law,  is  inexcusable  unless  absolutely  neces- 
sary, and  whatever  goes  beyond  that  is  criminal. " 
These  were  briefly  the  general  principles  on  which 
he  shaped  his  ends,  and  they  are  pretty  safe  guides. 
His  mentality,  as  I  have  said,  was  so  complete 
that  it  covered  every  subtle  and  charming  form 
of  thought  and  knowledge,  even  to  the  smallest 
affairs  of  life.  No  theologians  knew  more  than 
he  or  could  converse  so  clearly  on  the  many  differ- 
ent religions;  and  he  was  as  well  versed  in  the 
intricacies  of  finance  and  civil  law  as  he  was  in 
the  knowledge  of  art,  literature,  and  statecraft. 

His  memory  was  prodigious,  and  a  common 
saying  of  his  was  that  "A  head  without  a  memory 
is  like  a  fort  without  a  garrison."  He  never 
used  a  word  that  was  not  full  of  meaning.  The 
unparalleled  amount  of  literature  that  surrounds 
his  name  teems  with  concise,  vivid  sentences  on 
every  conceivable  subject,  and  the  more  they  are 
read  and  studied,  the  more  wonderful  appears  their 
wisdom.  On  the  eve  of  a  great  battle,  his  exhorta- 
tions to  his  soldiers  were  like  magic,  burning  hot 
into  their  souls,  making  them  irresistible.  The 
popular  idea  in  the  country  in  his  time,  when 
passion  ran  rampant — and  indeed,  in  a  hazy  way, 
it  affects  some  people's  minds  now — was  that  he  and 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     295 

his  family  were  mere  perfidious  Corsicans  without 
mental  endowments  or  character,  and  unworthy  of 
the  stations  in  life  in  which  his  genius  had  placed 
them.  His  sisters  have  been  caricatured  as  having 
the  manners  of  the  kitchen,  and  loose  morals,  and  his 
brothers  as  mediocrities.  A  great  deal  of  the  same 
stuff  is  now  written  about  other  people  who  have 
occupied  and  do  occupy  high  stations  in  life. 

Here  is  Napoleon's  own  version  of  each. of  his 
brothers  and  sisters  and  of  his  mother.  It  was  given 
in  course  of  conversation  to  Las  Cases  at  St.  Helena. 

The  Emperor  [he  says]  speaks  of  his  people;  of  the  slight 
assistance  he  has  received  at  their  hands,  and  of  the  trouble 
they  had  been  to  him;  he  goes  on  to  say  that  for  the  rest, 
we  should  always,  as  a  last  resort,  endeavour  to  form  a 
judgment  by  analogy.  What  family,  in  similar  circum- 
stances, would  have  done  better?  And,  after  all,  does  not 
mine  furnish,  on  the  whole,  a  record  which  does  me  honour? 
Joseph  would  be  an  ornament  to  society  wherever  he  might 
happen  to  reside;  Lucien,  an  ornament  to  any  political 
assembly;  Jerome,  had  he  come  to  years  of  discretion, 
would  have  made  an  excellent  ruler;  I  had  great  hopes  of 
him.  Louis  would  have  been  popular,  and  a  remarkable 
man  anywhere.  My  sister  Elisa  had  a  man's  intellect,  a 
brave  heart,  and  she  would  have  met  adversity  philosophi- 
cally. Caroline  is  a  very  clever  and  capable  woman.  Pauline, 
perhaps  the  most  beautiful  woman  of  her  day,  has  been, 
and  will  be  until  the  end,  the  most  charming  creature  living. 
As  for  my  mother,  she  is  worthy  of  every  respect.  What 
family  as  numerous  could  make  a  finer  impression? 

If  unprejudiced  history  counts  for  anything, 
this  testimony  is  true,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether 


296      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

any  of  the  ruling  families  of  France  who  preceded 
them,  or  even  those  of  other  countries,  who  took 
part  in  bringing  about  their  downfall  (taking  them 
as  a  whole),  could  tabulate  a  better  record  of 
worthiness.  Certainly  no  previous  ruler  of  France 
ever  made  the  efforts  that  the  head  of  the  Bona- 
parte family  did  to  fashion  his  brothers  and  sisters 
into  filling  the  positions  he  had  made  for  them  in 
a  way  that  became  princes  and  princesses. 

The  fact  is,  the  political  mind  was  whirling  and 
permeated  with  the  idea  of  his  ambition  only, 
and  the  human  aversion  to  the  introduction  of 
new  and  improved  conditions  of  life.  The  ruling 
classes  were  seized  with  alarm  lest  the  spirit  of 
the  French  Revolution  would  become  popular  in 
this  country,  and  that  not  only  their  possessions 
might  be  confiscated,  but  that  their  lives  would 
be  in  peril  if  the  doctrines  he  stood  for  were  to 
take  hold  of  the  public  imagination.  They  were 
afraid,  as  they  are  now,  of  the  despotism  of  democ- 
racy, and  so  they  kept  the  conflict  raging  for  over 
twenty  years.  Then  came  the  fall  of  the  greatest 
genius  and  most  generous  warrior-statesman  who 
has  ever  figured  in  the  world's  history;  he  had 
staggered  creation  with  his  formidable  power,  and 
the  instruments  of  his  downfall  flattered  them- 
selves that  the  day  of  Divine  vengeance  had 
arrived. 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     297 

III 

Only  a  few  short  months  had  elapsed  when  the 
indomitable  hero,  well  informed  of  the  allies' 
squabbling  deliberations,  at  the  seat  of  Confer- 
ence over  the  division  of  their  conquest,  and  their 
vindictive  intentions  towards  himself,  startled 
them  by  the  news  of  his  landing  and  uninterrupted 
march  on  Paris,  and  was  everywhere  acclaimed  by 
the  cheers  of  the  army  and  the  civilian  population. 
Louis  XVIII,  whom  the  conquerors  had  set  on 
the  throne,  flew  in  panic  when  he  heard  that  the 
man  of  destiny  was  swiftly  nearing  his  palace 
to  take  his  place  again  as  the  idol  and  chief  of  a 
great  people.  Meanwhile,  the  allies  had  some- 
what recovered  from  their  apoplectic  dismay,  and 
one  and  all  solemnly  resolved  to  "make  war  against 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,"  the  disturber  of  the  peace, 
though  he  was  the  welcomed  Emperor  of  the 
French.  It  was  they  who  were  the  disturbers  of 
the  peace,  and  especially  Great  Britain,  who 
headed  the  coalition  which  was  to  drench  again 
the  continent  with  human  blood.  Napoleon 
offered  to  negotiate,  and  never  was  there  a  more 
humane  opportunity  given  to  the  nations  to  settle 
their  affairs  in  a  way  that  would  have  assured  a 
lasting  peace;  but  here  again  the  ruling  classes, 
with  their  usual  impudent  assumption  of  power 
to  use  the  populations  for  the  purpose  of  killing 
each  other  and  creating  unspeakable  suffering  in 
all  the  hideous  phases  of  warfare,  refused  to  nego- 


298       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

tiate,  and  at  their  bidding  soldiers  were  plunged 
into  the  last  Napoleonic  conflict  though  many 
other  conflicts  have  followed  in  consequence. 
Nothing  so  deadly  had  ever  happened.  The 
French  were  defeated  and  their  Emperoi  was  sent 
to  St.  Helena  with  the  beneficent  Sir  Hudson  Lowe 
as  his  jailer. 

What  a  cynical  mockery  of  a  man  this  creature 
of  Wellington,  Castlereagh,  and  Lord  Bathurst 
was!  He  carried  out  their  behests,  and  after  the 
ugly  deed  of  vindictiveness,  rage,  and  frenzy  had 
wrought  the  tragic  end,  they  shielded  their  wicked 
act  by  throwing  the  guilt  on  him,  and  he  was 
hustled  off  to  a  distant  colony  to  govern  again 
lest  his  uneasy  spirit  should  put  them  in  the  dock 
of  public  opinion.  He  pleaded  with  them  to  em- 
ploy the  law  officers  of  the  Crown  to  bring  an 
action  against  Doctor  Barry  O'Meara,  whose 
Voice  from  St.  Helena  teemed  with  as  dark  a  story 
as  was  ever  put  in  print,  in  which  he  and  his  co- 
adjutors figured  as  the  base  contracting  parties. 
And  the  more  he  urged  that  the  book  was  a  libel 
against  himself,  the  more  O'Meara  demanded  that 
the  action  against  him  should  be  brought,  and  for 
very  substantial  reasons  it  never  was.  The  Duke 
of  Wellington  said  of  Sir  Hudson,  "He  was  a  stupid 
man.  A  bad  choice  and  totally  unfit  to  take 
charge  of  Bonaparte."  And  the  great  French 
chieftain  has  left  on  record  his  contemptuous 
opinion  of  the  Duke,  as  I  have  already  said,  "  Un 
homme  de  peu  a" esprit  sans  generosite  et  sans  gran- 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     299 

deur  d'ame"  ("He  was  a  poor-spirited  man  with- 
out generosity,  and  without  greatness  of  soul"). 
H  Un  homme  borne"  ("A  man  of  limited  capacity"). 
His  opinion  of  Nelson  was  different,  although  our 
Admiral  had  hammered  the  French  sea  power 
out  of  existence  and  helped  largely  to  shatter  any 
hope  Napoleon  may  have  had  of  bringing  the 
struggle  on  land  to  a  successful  conclusion. 

But  these  tragic  happenings  did  not  bring  repose 
to  the  nations.  Pitt  died  in  1806,  so  he  missed 
seeing  the  fulfilment  of  his  great  though  mistaken 
ambition.  Who  can  doubt,  as  I  have  said,  that  the 
lack  of  diplomatic  genius  in  preventing  the  spread- 
ing of  the  Napoleonic  wars  has  been  the  means  of 
creating  other  wars,  and  especially  the  greatest  of 
all,  in  which  the  whole  world  is  now  engaged ! 

That  Napoleon  himself  was  averse  to  a  conflict 
which  would  involve  all  Europe  and  bring  desola- 
tion in  its  train  is  shown  by  the  following  letter, 
written  by  his  own  hand,  to  George  III.  How 
different  might  the  world  have  been  to-day  had 
the  letter  been  received  in  the  same  spirit  in  which 
it  was  conceived ! 


Sir  and  Brother: — Called  to  the  throne  of  France  by 
Providence,  and  the  suffrages  of  the  Senate,  the  people,  and 
the  Army,  my  first  sentiment  is  a  wish  for  peace.  France 
and  England  abuse  their  prosperity.  They  may  contend  for 
ages,  but  do  their  governments  well  fulfil  the  most  sacred 
of  their  duties,  and  will  not  so  much  blood  shed  uselessly, 
and  without  a  view  to  any  end,  condemn  them  in  their  own 
consciences?    I  consider  it  no  disgrace  to  adopt  the  first 


3<x>      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

step.  I  have,  I  hope,  sufficiently  proved  to  the  world  that 
I  fear  none  of  the  chances  of  war,  which  presents  nothing 
I  have  need  to  fear;  peace  is  the  wish  of  my  heart,  but  war 
has  never  been  inconsistent  with  my  glory.  I  conjure  your 
Majesty  not  to  deny  yourself  the  happiness  of  giving  peace 
to  the  world,  or  leave  that  sweet  satisfaction  to  your  child- 
ren; for  certainly  there  never  was  a  more  fortunate  oppor- 
tunity nor  a  moment  more  favourable  than  the  present,  to 
silence  all  the  passions  and  listen  only  to  the  sentiments 
of  humanity  and  reason.  This  moment  once  lost,  what 
bounds  can  be  ascribed  to  a  war  which  all  my  efforts  will 
not  be  able  to  terminate.  Your  Majesty  has  gained  more 
in  ten  years,  both  in  territory  and  riches,  than  the  whole 
extent  of  Europe.  Your  nation  is  at  the  highest  point  of 
prosperity,  what  can  it  hope  from  war?  To  form  a  coalition 
with  some  Powers  on  the  continent  ?  The  continent  will  re- 
main tranquil ;  a  coalition  can  only  increase  the  preponder- 
ance and  continental  greatness  of  France.  To  renew  in- 
testine troubles?  The  times  are  no  longer  the  same.  To 
destroy  our  finances?  Finances  founded  on  a  flourishing 
agriculture  can  never  be  destroyed.  To  wrest  from  France 
her  colonies  ?  The  colonies  are  to  France  only  a  secondary 
object;  and  does  not  your  Majesty  already  possess  more 
than  you  know  how  to  preserve?  If  your  Majesty  would 
but  reflect,  you  must  perceive  that  the  war  is  without  an 
object;  or  any  presumable  result  to  yourself.  Alas!  What 
a  melancholy  prospect :  to  fight  merely  for  the  sake  of  fight- 
ing. The  world  is  sufficiently  wide  for  our  two  nations  to 
live  in,  and  reason  sufficiently  powerful  to  discover  the 
means  of  reconciling  everything,  when  a  wish  for  recon- 
ciliation exists  on  both  sides.  I  have,  however,  fulfilled  a 
sacred  duty,  and  one  which  is  precious  to  my  heart 

I  trust  your  Majesty  will  believe  the  sincerity  of  my 
sentiments,  and  my  wish  to  give  you  every  proof  of  the 
same,  etc. 

(Signed)  Napoleon. 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     301 

This  letter  indicates  the  mind  and  heart  of  a 
great  statesman.  The  thinking  people,  and  there- 
fore the  most  reliable  patriots,  would  receive  a 
similar  appeal  to-day  from  the  Kaiser  in  a  different 
spirit  than  did  the  King  and  the  Government  of 
George  III. 

We  believe  that  the  war  with  Germany  was 
forced  upon  us,  and  that  Mr.  Asquith's  Govern- 
ment, and  especially  Sir  Edward  Grey  (his  Foreign 
Secretary),  used  every  honourable  means  to  avoid 
it,  but  the  cause  and  origin  of  it  sprang  out  of 
the  defects  of  managing  and  settling  the  wars 
that  raged  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century. 
Pitt,  aided  by  those  colleagues  of  his  who  were 
swayed  by  his  magnetic  influence,  was  respon- 
sible to  a  large  degree  for  laying  the  foundation 
of  the  present  menace  to  European  concord. 
Napoleon's  plan  of  unification  would  have  kept 
Prussian  militarism  in  check.  He  looked,  and 
saw  into  the  future,  while  Pitt  and  his  supporters 
had  no  vision  at  all.  They  played  the  Prussian 
game  by  combining  to  bring  about  the  fall  of  the 
monarch  who  should  have  been  regarded  as  this 
country's  natural  ally,  and  by  undoing  the  many 
admirable  safeguards  which  were  designed  to 
prevent  Prussia  from  forcing  other  German  States 
under  her  dominion.  Napoleon  predicted  that 
which  would  happen,  and  has  happened.  He  al- 
ways kept  in  mind  the  cunning  and  unscrupulous 
tricks  of  Frederick  and  knew  that  if  his  power 
were  destroyed,  that  would  be  Prussia's  oppor- 


302      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

tunity  to  renew  the  methods  of  the  Hohenzollern 
scoundrel,  the  hero  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  and  the 
intermittent  friend  of  Voltaire,  who  made  unpro- 
voked war  on  Maria  Theresa  with  that  splendid 
Prussian  disregard  for  treaty  obligations,  and 
who  then,  with  amazing  insolence,  after  the  seven 
years'  butchery  was  over,  sat  down  at  Sans  Souci 
in  the  companionship  of  his  numerous  dogs  to 
write  his  memoirs  in  which  he  states  that  "ambi- 
tion, interest,  the  desire  of  making  people  talk 
about  him  carried  the  day,  and  he  decided  for 
war" ;  he  might  have  added  to  the  majestic  Hohen- 
zollern creed,  incurable  treachery,  falsehood,  hypo- 
crisy, and  cowardice! 

But  the  law  of  retribution  comes  to  nations  as 
well  as  to  individuals,  and  after  the  disappearance 
of  Frederick,  Prussian  ascendancy  came  to  an 
end  and  sank  to  the  lowest  depths  of  hopelessness 
before  the  terrible  power  of  Napoleon;  after  his 
fall,  the  old  majestic  arrogance  natural  to  their 
race  began  to  revive.  It  took  many  years  for  the 
military  caste  to  carry  their  objectives  to  maturity, 
and  had  we  stood  sensibly  and  loyally  by  our 
French  neighbours,  the  tragedy  that  gapes  at  us 
now  could  never  have  come  to  pass.  Possibly 
the  Franco-German  war  would  never  have  oc- 
curred had  our  foreign  policy  been  skilfully  handled 
and  our  attitude  wisely  apprehensive  of  Germany's 
ultimate  unification  and  her  aggressive  aims. 
The  generations  that  are  to  come  will  assuredly 
be  made  to  see  the  calamities  wrought  by  the 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     303 

administrators  of  that  period,  whose  faculties 
consisted  in  hoarding  up  prejudices,  creating  en- 
mities, and  making  wars  that  drained  the  blood 
and  treasure  of  our  land.  We  do  not  find  a  single 
instance  of  Pitt  or  Castlereagh  expressing  an  idea 
worthy  of  statesmanship.  What  did  either  of 
these  men  ever  do  to  uplift  the  higher  phases  of 
humanity  by  grappling  with  the  problem  that 
had  been  brought  into  being  by  the  French 
Revolution  ? 

When  we  think  of  responsible  ministers  having 
no  other  vision  or  plan  of  coming  to  an  under- 
standing with  the  French  nation  except  by  their 
screams,  groans,  and  odour  of  blood,  it  makes  one 
shudder,  and  we  wish  to  forget  that  the  people 
allowed  them  to  carry  out  their  hideous  methods 
of  settling  disputes.  A  galaxy  of  brilliant  writers 
has  sung  their  praises  in  profusion,  but  while  the 
present  writer  admires  the  literary  charm  of  the 
penmen's  efforts,  he  does  not  find  their  conclusions 
so  agreeable  or  so  easy  to  understand.  There  was 
never  a  time,  in  our  opinion,  even  during  the  most 
embarrassing  and  darkest  phases  of  the  Napoleonic 
struggle,  in  which  our  differences  with  France 
were  insoluble.  Napoleon,  as  I  have  said,  never 
ceased  to  avow  his  willingness  to  make  vital  sacri- 
fices in  order  that  peace  between  the  two  peoples 
should  be  consummated.  The  stereotyped  cant 
of  maintaining  the  "Balance  of  Power"  is  no 
excuse  for  plunging  a  nation  into  gruesome,  cruel, 
and  horrible  wars.     It  is  when  our  liberties  are 


304      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

threatened  that  circumstances  may  arise  mak- 
ing it  a  crime  not  to  defend  them.  But  where 
and  when  were  any  of  our  interests  threatened 
by  Napoleon  until  we  became  the  aggressors  by 
interfering  with  the  policy  of  what  he  called  his 
"Continental  system"?  Even  before  Napoleon 
became  Consul,  First  Consul,  and  subsequently 
Emperor  of  the  French,  it  was  deemed  high  policy 
on  the  part  of  our  statesmen  to  take  sides  against 
the  French  Directorate  in  disputes  that  were 
caused  and  had  arisen  on  the  continent  out  of 
the  Revolution ;  and,  once  involved  in  the  entangle- 
ment which  it  is  hard  to  believe  concerned  us  in 
any  degree,  the  nation  was  committed  to  a  long 
and  devastating  debauch  of  crime  which  men  who 
understood  the  real  art  of  statesmanship  would 
have  avoided. 

Many  of  the  famous  statesmen  who  have  lived 
since  their  time  would  have  acted  differently. 
Fox,  with  a  free  hand,  would  have  saved  us,  and 
but  for  the  senseless  attitude  of  the  Pitt-Castle- 
reagh  party,  the  Grey,  Romilly,  Horner,  Burdett, 
and  Tierny  combination  would  have  prevented 
the  last  of  Napoleon's  campaigns  between  his 
return  from  Elba  and  his  defeat  at  Waterloo, 
which  proved  to  be  the  bloodiest  of  all  the  Emp  eror's 
wars. 

Amongst  a  certain  section  of  the  community 
the  belief  is  that  they  who  can  steer  the  State  along 
peaceful  lines  are  mediocrities,  and  they  who  in- 
volve us  in  war  are  geniuses  and  earn  the  distinc- 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     305 

tion  of  fame  and  Westminster  Abbey,  though  it 
may  be  that  they  are  totally  void  of  all  the  essen- 
tials that  are  required  to  keep  on  good  terms,  not 
only  with  other  Powers,  but  with  our  own  masses. 
Take,  first  of  all,  the  unostentatious  old  Scotsman, 
Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman,  who  was  re- 
garded in  the  light  of  a  mediocrity  by  the  belli- 
cose-minded people.  Had  he  lived  and  been  in 
power  at  the  time  of  Pitt  and  Castlereagh,  his 
finely  constituted,  shrewd  brain  and  quiet,  deter- 
mined personality  would  have  guided  the  State  in 
a  way  that  would  have  brought  it  credit  and  kept 
it  out  of  the  shambles.  Another  personality  who 
is  possessed  of  attributes  that  have  been  scantily 
recognized  is  that  of  Lord  Rosebery,  who,  during 
his  Foreign  Secretaryship  under  Mr.  Gladstone, 
and  when  he  became  Premier  himself,  saved  this 
country  more  than  once  from  war  with  Germany, 
leaving  out  of  account  the  many  other  services 
rendered  to  his  country.  It  is  a  tragedy  to  allow 
such  merits  to  be  wasted  because  of  some  slight 
difference  of  opinion  in  matters  that  do  not  count 
compared  with  the  advantage  of  having  at  the 
head  of  affairs  a  man  with  an  unerring  tactful  brain 
who  can  deal  with  international  complexities  with 
complete  ease  and  assurance. 

Although  Mr.  Gladstone  must  always  be  associ- 
ated with  those  who  were  responsible  for  the  guilt 
of  dragging  this  country,  and  perhaps  France, 
into  the  Crimean  War  in  defence  of  a  state  and  a 
people  whom  he  declared  in  other  days  should  be 


306      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

turned  out  of  Europe  "bag  and  baggage"  because 
of  her  unwholesome  government  and  hideous 
crimes  to  her  subject  races,  he  had  the  courage 
and  the  honesty  to  declare  in  later  life  that  the 
part  he  took  in  allowing  himself  to  acquiesce  in  a 
policy  he  did  not  approve,  would  always  be  a 
bitter  thought  to  him.  Had  he  been  at  the  head 
of  the  Government  then,  and  had  he  lived  at  the 
time  of  the  continental  upheaval  that  followed 
the  French  Revolution,  all  the  evidences  of  his 
humane  spirit  and  prodigious  capacity  lead  us  to 
the  belief  that  there  were  no  circumstances  affect- 
ing our  vital  national  interests  that  would  have 
led  him  to  take  up  arms  against  France.  Nor 
do  we  think  that  a  statesman  of  Lord  Salisbury's 
stamp  would  have  failed  to  find  a  way  out.  Dis- 
raeli was  a  different  type.  He  lived  in  a  pic- 
turesque world,  and  thirsted  for  sensation.  The 
enormity  of  war  was  meaningless  to  him.  He  was 
not  a  constitutional  statesman,  but  merely  a  poli- 
tician who  liked  to  arouse  emotions.  Mr.  Asquith, 
whose  head  is  free  from  the  wafting  of  feathers, 
would,  with  strong  and  loyal  backers,  have  applied 
his  inimitable  powers  of  persuasion  and  tact  in 
accomplishing  his  ends  without  a  rupture;  and 
Lord  Morley  would  as  soon  have  thought  of  danc- 
ing a  hornpipe  on  his  mother's  tomb,  as  have 
yielded  to  the  clamour  for  war  by  any  number 
of  the  people  or  any  number  of  his  colleagues,  no 
matter  how  numerous  or  how  powerful  they  might 
be;  even  though  his  opinion  of  the  French  Em- 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     307 

peror  were  strongly  adverse,  he  would  have  angled 
for  peace  or  resigned.     I  would  rather  place  the 
guidance  of  the  country  through  intricate  courses 
in  this  man's  hands  than  in  those  of  a  man  mentally 
constituted  as  was  Pitt.    The  present  Viscount 
Grey  would  have  taken  the  line  his  namesake  took 
in  18 15  by  strongly  advocating  a  peaceful  solution. 
Take  another  man  of  our  own  time,  the  Right 
Hon.  Arthur  Balfour.     He  would  have  parleyed 
and  schemed  until  the  time  had  passed  for  any 
useful  object  to  be  gained  by  our  joining  in  the 
war,  always  provided  that  the  Jingo  spirit  were 
not  too  irrepressible  for  him  to  overpower  and 
bewilder  with  his  engaging  philosophy.     If  George 
III  had  been  blessed  with  these  types  of  statesmen 
to  advise  him  instead  of  the  Castlereaghs,  he  might 
not  have  lost  his  reason.     Napoleon  would  never 
have  gone  to  Egypt,  and  our  shores  would  never 
have  been  threatened  with  invasion.     Nor  would 
British  and  neutral  trade  have  been   paralyzed 
in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  about  ruin,  riots,  bank- 
ruptcies, and  every  form  of  devastation  in  181 1. 
And  as  a  natural  corollary  we  were  plunged  into 
a  war  with  America  which  lasted  from  18 12  to 
1 8 14,  and  which  left,  as  it  well  might,  long  years 
of  bitter  and  vindictive  memories  in  the  minds 
of  a  people  who  were  of  our  race  and  kindred. 
Our  people  as  a  whole  (but  especially  the  poorer 
classes)  were  treated  in  a  manner  akin  to  barbar- 
ism, while  their  rulers  invoked  them  to  bear  like 
patriots  the  suffering  they  had  bestowed  upon  them. 


3<>8      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

But  the  canker  had  eaten  so  deeply  into  their 
souls  that  it  culminated  in  fierce  riots  breaking 
out  in  Lancashire  and  London  which  spread  to 
other  parts  and  were  only  suppressed  by  measures 
that  are  familiar  to  the  arrogant  despots  who,  by 
their  clumsy  acts,  are  the  immediate  cause  of 
revolt.  Pitt  and  Castlereagh  were  the  High  Com- 
missioners of  the  military  spirit  which  the  Whigs 
detested,  and  when  the  former  died  in  1806  the 
latter  became  the  natural  leader. 

Pitt  was  buried  peaceably  enough  in  the  Abbey, 
but  when  his  successor's  tragic  end  came  in  1822, 
the  populace  avenged  themselves  of  the  wrongs  for 
which  they  believed  he  was  responsible  by  throw- 
ing stones  at  the  coffin  as  it  was  being  solemnly 
borne  to  its  last  lasting  place  beside  William  Pitt. 
Both  men  made  war  on  Napoleon  because  they 
believed  him  to  be  the  implacable  disturber  of 
peace  and  a  danger  to  their  country.  Pitt,  as 
we  have  seen,  left  among  his  MSS.  his  opinion  of 
the  great  soldier,  and  here  is  the  latter's  opinion 
of  Pitt,  expressed  to  his  ministers  on  the  eve  of 
his  leaving  Paris  for  his  last  campaign  against 
his  relentless  foes. 

I  do  not  know  [he  said  to  his  ministers  in  speaking 
to  them  of  the  new  constitution  he  had  granted]  how  in 
my  absence  you  will  manage  to  lead  the  Chambers.  Mon- 
sieur Fouche"  thinks  that  popular  assemblies  are  to  be 
controlled  by  gaining  over  some  old  jobbers,  or  flattering 
some  young  enthusiasts.  That  is  only  intrigue,  and  in- 
trigue does  not  carry  one  far.     In  England,  such  means  are 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     309 

not  altogether  neglected;  but  there  are  greater  and  nobler 
ones.  Remember  Mr.  Pitt,  and  look  at  Lord  Castlereagh! 
With  a  sign  from  his  eyebrows,  Mr.  Pitt  could  control  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  so  can  Lord  Castlereagh  now! 
Ah !  if  I  had  such  instruments,  I  should  not  be  afraid  of  the 
Chambers.    But  have  I  anything  to  resemble  these?1 

This  piece  of  pathetic  history  is  given  to  us 
by  the  French  historian,  M.  Thiers,  the  lifelong 
enemy  of  his  imperial  master,  Napoleon  III.  We 
are  faced  now  with  the  Power  that  we  helped  to 
build  up  against  ourselves  at  the  expense  of  the 
wreck  of  the  First  French  Empire. 

The  political  situation  then  and  now  bears  no 
comparison.  We  made  war  on  the  French  without 
any  real  justification,  and  stained  our  high  sense 
of  justice  by  driving  them  to  frenzy.  We  bought 
soldiers  and  sailors  to  fight  them  from  impecunious 
German  and  Hanoverian  princes.  We  subsidized 
Russia,  Prussia,  Austria,  Portugal,  Spain,  and 
that  foul  cesspool,  Naples,  at  the  expense  of  the 
starvation  of  the  poorest  classes  in  our  own  coun- 
try. The  bellicose  portion  of  the  population, 
composed  mainly  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes, 
shrieked  their  deluded  terrors  of  extinction  into 
the  minds  of  the  people  and  believed  that  if  we 
did  not  make  common  cause  with  the  downtrod- 
den sanctified  allies  who  were  fighting  a  man-eating 
ogre  who  was  overrunning  their  respective  coun- 
tries, putting  everyone  to   the  sword,  we   should 

1  Histoire  du  Consulat  et  de  V Empire,  vol.  xix,  p.  619,  published  August, 
1861. 


3io      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

become  the  objects  of  his  fierce  attention,  be 
invaded  and  ground  down  to  slavery  for  ever  and 
ever.  Our  statesmen,  hypocritically  full  of  the 
gospel  of  pity,  could  not  speak  of  our  ally  of 
other  days  without  weeping,  while  at  the  same  time 
pouring  further  subsidies  into  her  greedy,  traitor- 
ous lap,  in  order  that  they  might  secure  her  co- 
ordination. 

It  is  futile  for  historian  apologists  to  attempt 
to  vindicate  men  who  obviously  were  afflicted 
with  moral  cupidity,  begotten  of  intellectual 
paralysis.  It  is  merely  an  unwholesome  subter- 
fuge to  state  that  they  were  free  from  enmity 
against  the  French  nation,  and  that  their  quarrel 
was  with  the  head  of  it.  There  would  be  just  as 
much  common  sense  in  contending  that  the  French 
Government  had  no  hostile  feeling  against  the 
British  people,  and  that  her  quarrel  was  only 
with  George  III.  Devices  such  as  these,  under 
any  circumstances,  are  not  only  unworthy,  but 
childish,  and  their  sole  object  is  to  throw  dust  in 
the  eyes  of  those  they  flippantly  call  the  common 
people.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  not  only  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  whom  they  made  it  their  pol- 
icy to  charge  with  being  a  public  danger  to  the 
world,  but  the  principles  of  the  Revolution  which 
he  sprang  from  obscurity  to  save,  which  was  slyly 
kept  at  the  back  of  their  heads. 

But  the  Republic,  which  was  the  outcome  of 
the  Revolution,  was  an  approved  ordinance  of  the 
people,  and  in  addition  to  Napoleon  being  their 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     31  * 

duly  elected  representative,  he  was  regarded  by 
them  as  the  incarnation  of  the  Republic.  The 
difference  between  him  and  the  other  monarchs  of 
Europe  was  that  while  they  inherited  their  posi- 
tion, his  election  was  democratically  ratified  by 
millions  of  votes.  These  votes  were  given  by  the 
people  with  whom  a  foreign  government  declared 
it  was  at  peace  while  at  the  same  time  it  was  at 
war  with  their  chief,  whom  they  had  from  time 
to  time  duly  elected.  This  is  a  method  of  war- 
fare which  represents  no  high  form  of  thought  or 
action,  and  to  the  everlasting  credit  of  the  French 
people,  be  it  said,  they  not  only  resented  it,  but 
stood  loyally  by  their  Emperor  and  their  country 
until  they  were  overpowered  by  the  insidious 
poison  of  treason  and  intrigue  from  within  and 
without. 

What  a  howl  there  would  have  been  if  the  Ger- 
man Kaiser  had  sent  out  a  proclamation  that 
he  was  not  at  war  with  the  British  nation,  but 
with  their  King  and  government!  Suppose  he 
had  committed  the  same  act  of  arrogance  towards 
the  President  of  the  United  States;  the  revulsion 
of  feeling  would  be  irrepressible  in  every  part  of 
the  world. 

We  recognize  at  the  same  time  that  Napoleon's 
position  was  made  insecure  by  an  important  ele- 
ment of  his  own  countrymen,  composed  of  the 
Bourbons  and  their  supporters,  who  never  ceased 
to  intrigue  for  their  return.  Besides,  there  was 
a  strong  Republican  element  who  never  forgave 


3i2       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

him  for  allowing  himself  to  become  Emperor. 
But  the  most  serious  defection  was  that  of  some 
of  his  most  important  generals,  amongst  whom 
were  Marmont  and  Berthier.  The  former  sub- 
sequently became  the  military  tutor  of  his  son, 
the  King  of  Rome,  who  died  at  Schonbrunn  on 
the  22d  July,  1832,  eleven  years  after  his  father's 
death  at  St.  Helena. 

A  notable  fact  is  that  there  were  very  few  of 
his  common  soldiers  and  common  people  who  did 
not  stand  by  him  to  the  last,  and  who  would  not 
have  continued  the  struggle  under  his  trusted  and 
revered  generalship,  had  he  elected  to  fight  on. 
He  implored  the  provisional  government  to  give 
their  sanction  to  this,  and  had  they  done  so,  he 
has  stated  that  he  could  have  kept  the  allies  at 
bay  and  would  have  ultimately  made  them  sue 
for  peace.  Most  authorities  declare  that  this 
would  have  been  impossible,  but  his  genius  as  a 
tactician  was  so  prodigious  and  unrivalled,  his 
art  of  enthusing  his  soldiers  so  vastly  superior  to 
that  of  any  general  that  could  be  brought  against 
him,  his  knowledge  of  the  country  on  which  he 
might  select  to  give  battle  so  matchless  that  one 
has  substantial  grounds  for  believing  that  his 
assertion  was  more  than  a  mere  flash  of  imagina- 
tion, and  that  even  with  the  shattered,  loyal 
portion  of  his  army,  he  might  have  succeeded  in 
changing  defeat  into  a  victory  which  would  have 
changed  the  whole  political  position  of  Europe. 
He  frequently  reverted  to  his  last  campaign  and 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War      3*3 

his  last  battle  at  Waterloo,  when  he  was  in  captiv- 
ity at  St.  Helena,  and  declared  he  should  never 
have  lost  it,  as  his  plan  of  battle  at  every  point 
was  never  better  devised,  and  that  by  all  the  arts 
of  war  he  ought  to  have  defeated  the  allies ;  then 
he  would  lapse  into  sadness  and  soliloquize,  "It 
must  have  been  fate." 

In  the  effort  to  crush  a  cause  and  a  nation  which 
had  been  brought  out  of  the  depths  of  anarchy 
and  raised  to  the  zenith  of  power  by  the  advent 
of  a  great  spirit,  the  British  Government  of  that 
period  made  their  country  a  party  to  the  slaughter 
of  thousands  of  our  fellow-creatures,  which,  in 
the  light  of  subsequent  events,  has  left  a  stain 
upon  our  diplomacy  that  can  never  be  effaced 
no  matter  what  form  of  excuse  may  be  set  forth 
to  justify  it.  Never,  in  the  whole  history  of 
blurred  diplomatic  vision,  has  there  evolved  so 
great  a  calamity  to  the  higher  development  of 
civilization. 

By  taking  so  prominent  a  part  in  preventing 
Napoleon  from  fulfilling  the  eternal  purpose  for 
which  all  nature  foreshadowed  he  was  intended, 
we  made  it  possible  for  Germany  to  develop  syste- 
matically a  diabolical  policy  of  treason  which  has 
involved  the  world  in  war,  drenching  it  with  human 
blood.  The  allies  pursued  Napoleon  to  his  down- 
fall. Their  attitude  during  the  whole  course  of 
his  rule  was  senselessly  vindictive.  They  gloated 
over  his  misfortune  when  he  became  their  victim 
and  they  consummated  their  vengeance  by  making 


314      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

him  a  martyr.  The  exile  of  St.  Helena  acted 
differently.  When  he  conquered,  instead  of  vi- 
ciously overrunning  the  enemy's  country  and 
spreading  misery  and  devastation,  he  made  what 
he  wished  to  be  lasting  peace,  and  allowed  the  sov- 
ereigns to  retain  their  thrones.  How  often  did  he 
carry  out  this  act  of  generosity  towards  Prussia 
and  Austria,  and  who  can  say  that  he  did  not 
act  benevolently  towards  Alexander  of  Russia 
when  at  Austerlitz  and  Tilsit  he  formed  what  he 
regarded  as  lasting  personal  friendship  with  the 
Czar!  It  is  all  moonshine  to  say  that  he  broke 
the  friendship.  The  power  of  Russia,  Prussia, 
and  Austria  was  hopelessly  wrecked  more  than 
once,  and  on  each  occasion  they  intrigued  him 
into  war  again,  and  then  threw  themselves  at  his 
feet,  grovelling  supplicants  for  mercy,  which  he 
never  withheld. 

Well  might  he  exclaim  to  Caulaincourt,  his  am- 
bassador in  1 8 14,  when  the  congress  was  sitting 
at  Chatillon:  "These  people  will  not  treat;  the 
position  is  reversed;  they  have  forgotten  my 
conduct  to  them  at  Tilsit.  Then  I  could  have 
crushed  them;  my  clemency  was  simple  folly." 

The  nations  who  treated  him  with  such  unrea- 
sonable severity  would  do  well  to  reflect  over  the 
unfathomable  folly  of  the  past,  and  try  to  realize, 
at  the  present  stage  of  their  critical  existence, 
that  it  may  be  possible  that  human  life  is  reaping 
the  agonies  of  a  terrible  retribution  for  a  crime 
an  important  public  in  every  civilized  country 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War      3J5 

believed,  and  still  continues  to  believe,  to  have 
been  committed.  It  is  a  natural  law  of  life  that 
no  mysterious  physical  force  ever  dies,  but  only 
changes  its  form  and  direction.  Individuals  and 
vast  communities  may  dare  to  mock  at  the  great 
mystery  that  we  do  not  understand.  But  it  is  a 
perilous  experiment  to  defy  its  visitations.  What 
incalculable  results  may  arise  through  taking  the 
wrong  attitude  towards  the  great  laws  that  govern 
our  being ! 

The  autocratic  rulers  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century  were  never  right  in  their  views  as  to 
how  the  vastly  greater  image  than  their  own  should 
be  treated.  They  measured  Napoleon  and  his 
loftier  qualities  by  their  own  tumultuous  limita- 
tions, which  prevented  them  from  seeing  how  wide 
the  gulf  was  between  him  and  the  ordinary  man. 
He  was  a  magical  personality,  and  they  failed  to 
comprehend  it. 

Heinrich  Heine,  the  great  German  writer,  who 
was  pro-Napoleon,  has  told  a  vivid  story  of  how 
he  visited  the  East  India  Docks,  while  he  was  in 
London,  and  there  saw  a  large  sailing  vessel  with 
a  great  number  of  coloured  people  on  board, 
Mohammedans  for  the  most  part.  He  wished  to 
speak  to  them  but  did  not  know  their  language. 
He  was  particularly  anxious  to  show  them  some 
courtesy  if  even,  as  he  says,  in  a  single  word,  so 
he  reverently  called  out  the  name  "Mohammed." 
In  an  instant  the  countenance  of  these  strange 
people  beamed  with  pleasure,  and  with  character- 


3*6      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

istic  eastern  devotion  they  bowed  themselves  and 
shouted  back  to  him  "Bonaparte." 

I  have  no  thought,  in  writing  of  Napoleon,  to 
draw  a  comparison  between  him  and  the  ex-Kaiser 
and  his  guilty  coadjutors  in  crime,  who  forced  a 
peaceful  world  into  unspeakable  war.  They  have 
been  guilty  of  the  foulest  of  murders,  which  will 
outmatch  in  ferocity  every  phase  of  human  bar- 
barity. There  can  be  no  pardon  or  pity  for  them. 
They  must  pay  the  penalty  of  their  crimes,  as 
other  criminals  have  to  do.  The  following  letter, 
addressed  by  William  II  to  his  late  colleague  in 
guilt,  the  Emperor  Joseph  of  Austria,  is  enough 
in  itself  to  set  the  whole  world  into  a  blaze  of 
vengeance: 

My  soul  is  torn  [says  this  canting  outcast],  but  every- 
thing must  be  put  to  fire  and  sword,  men,  women,  children, 
and  old  men  must  be  slaughtered,  and  not  a  tree  or  house  be 
left  standing.  With  these  methods  of  terrorism,  which  are 
alone  capable  of  affecting  a  people  so  degenerate  as  the 
French,  the  war  will  be  over  in  two  months,  whereas  if  I 
admit  humanitarian  considerations,  it  will  last  years.  In 
spite  of  my  repugnance,  I  have,  therefore,  been  obliged  to 
choose  the  former  system. 

It  is  hard  to  believe  that  a  document  of  this 
kind  could  be  written  by  any  one  that  was  not 
far  gone  in  lunacy,  but  in  any  case,  I  repeat  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  St.  Helena  will  not  be  desecrated 
by  sending  him  to  that  hallowed  abode. 

It  is  never  a  difficult  performance  to  become 
involved  in  war,  and  it  is  always  a  tax  on  human 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War      3*7 

genius  to  find  a  decent  way  out  of  it;  whether  it 
be  honourable  or  dishonourable  does  not  matter 
to  those  who  believe  in  conflict  as  a  solution  of 
international  disputes.  History  can  safely  be 
challenged  to  prove  that  anything  but  wild  wrath 
and  ruin  is  the  unfailing  outcome  of  war  to  all 
the  belligerents,  whether  few  or  many.  More 
often  than  not,  it  is  brought  about  by  the  exulting 
chatter  of  a  few  irrepressible  and  also  irrespon- 
sible individuals  who  have  military  or  political 
ambitions  to  look  after,  and  no  other  faculty  of 
reason  or  vocabulary  than  the  gibberish  "that 
war  will  clear  the  air."  They  ostentatiously 
claim  a  monopoly  of  patriotism,  and  convey  their 
views  on  war  matters  with  a  blustering  levity 
which  is  a  marvel  to  the  astonished  soul.  Their 
attitude  towards  human  existence  is  that  you 
cannot  be  a  patriot  or  create  a  great  nation  unless 
you  are  bellicose  and  warlike. 

This  was  the  deplorable  condition  of  mind  that 
involved  us  in  the  wars  subsequent  to  the  French 
Revolution.  But  the  diplomatists  (if  it  be  proper 
to  call  them  such)  and  the  oligarchy  were  respon- 
sible for  the  ruptures  at  that  period,  and  certainly 
not  the  general  public.  In  fact,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  the  general  public  are  ever  in  favour  of 
breaking  the  peace.  A  minority  may  be,  but  they 
are  the  noisy  and  unreflecting  section.  There  is  a 
wide  difference  between  the  Napoleonic  wars  and 
that  which  has  been  waged  against  the  civilized 
world  by  the  German   Kaiser  and  his  military 


3l8      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

myrmidons,  who  have  acted  throughout  like  wild 
beasts.  There  never  has  been  perpetrated  so 
atrocious  a  crime  as  the  deliberately  planned 
military  outrage  on  the  peace  of  the  world. 

The  brief  comparison  between  Kaiser  William 
and  Napoleon  Bonaparte  is  that  the  one,  like 
Frederick,  the  hero  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  is  a  shame- 
less traitor  to  every  act  of  human  decency,  and 
the  other,  in  spite  of  what  biassed  writers  have 
thought  it  their  duty  to  say  of  him,  was  an  un- 
paralleled warrior-statesman,  and  his  motives 
and  actions  were  all  on  the  side  of  God's  humanity 
and  good  government.  From  the  time  he  was 
found  and  made  the  head  of  the  French  nation, 
he  was  always  obliged  to  be  on  the  defensive,  and, 
as  he  stated,  never  once  declared  war.  The  con- 
tinental Great  Powers  always  made  war  on  him, 
but  not  without  his  thrashing  them  soundly  until 
they  pleaded  in  their  humility  to  be  allowed  to 
lick  his  boots.  You  may  search  English  state 
papers  in  any  musty  hole  you  like,  and  you  will 
find  no  authoritative  record  that  comes  within 
miles  of  justifying  the  opinions  or  the  charges  that 
have  been  stated  or  written  against  him.  Let 
us  not  commit  the  sacrilege,  if  the  Kaiser  is  ever 
made  prisoner  and  is  not  shot  for  the  murders  and 
cruelties  he  and  his  subjects  have  committed  on 
British  men  and  women  at  sea  and  on  land,  of  de- 
porting him  to  St.  Helena  to  desecrate  the  ground 
made  sacred  for  all  time  because  of  the  great  Em- 
peror who  was  an  exile  there.     Force  of  circum- 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     3^ 

stances  made  Louis  Philippe  declare  the  truth  to 
the  world's  new  generations  (doubtless  to  save 
his  own  precious  skin)  that  "he  was  not  only  an 
emperor,  but  a  king  from  the  very  day  that  the 
French  nation  called  upon  him  to  be  their  ruler." 
The  kingly  Louis  would  have  given  worlds  not 
to  have  been  compelled  to  say  this  truth  of  him, 
but  his  crown  was  at  stake. 

The  Senate  voted  with  enthusiasm  that  he 
should  be  First  Consul  for  ten  years,  and  he 
replied  to  the  vote  of  confidence  that  "Fortune 
had  smiled  upon  the  Republic;  but  Fortune  was 
inconstant; — how  many  men,"  said  he,  "upon 
whom  she  has  heaped  her  favours  have  lived  too 
long  by  some  years — "  and  that  the  interest  of  his 
glory  and  happiness  seemed  to  have  marked  the 
period  of  his  public  life,  at  the  moment  when  the 
peace  of  the  world  was  proclaimed.  Then  with  one 
of  those  spasmodic  impulses  that  compel  atten- 
tion, he  darts  an  arrow  right  on  the  spot;  "If," 
he  says,  "you  think  I  owe  the  nation  a  new  sacri- 
fice, I  will  make  it;  that  is,  if  the  wishes  of  the 
people  correspond  with  the  command  authorized 
by  theii  suffrages."  Always  the  suffrages,  you 
observe,  and  never  the  miserable,  slandering, 
backbiting  dodges  of  the  treasonists. 

The  mind  of  this  remarkable  man  was  a  palatial 
storehouse  of  wise,  impressive  inspirations.  Here 
is  one  of  countless  instances  where  a  prejudiced 
adversary  bears  testimony  to  his  power  and  wis- 
dom.   A  few  Republican  officers  sought  and  were 


320      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

granted  an  audience,  and  the  following  is  a  frank 
admission  of  their  own  impotence  and  Napoleon's 
greatness:  "I  do  not  know,"  their  spokesman 
says,  "from  whence  or  from  whom  he  derives  it, 
but  there  is  a  charm  about  that  man  indescribable 
and  irresistible.  I  am  no  admirer  of  his."  Such 
persons  always  preface  any  statement  they  are 
about  to  make  by  asserting  their  own  superiority 
in  this  way,  and  the  officers,  who,  with  others,  had 
many  imaginary  grievances  against  Napoleon, 
determined  to  empty  their  overburdened  souls 
to  him.  This  gallant  person  emphasizes  the  fact 
that  he  dislikes  "the  power  to  which  he  [Napoleon] 
had  risen,"  yet  he  cannot  help  confessing  (evidently 
with  reluctance)  that  there  is  something  in  him 
which  seems  to  speak  that  he  is  born  to  command. 

We  went  into  his  apartment  to  expostulate  warmly  with 
him,  and  not  to  depart  until  our  complaints  were  removed. 
But  by  his  manner  of  receiving  us  we  were  disarmed  in  a 
moment,  and  could  not  utter  one  word  of  what  we  were 
going  to  say.  He  talked  to  us  with  an  eloquence  peculiarly 
his  own,  and  explained  with  clearness  and  precision  the 
importance  of  pursuing  the  line  of  conduct  he  had  adopted, 
never  contradicting  us  in  direct  terms,  but  controverted 
our  opinions  so  astutely  that  we  had  not  a  single  word  to 
offer  in  reply,  and  retired  convinced  that  he  was  in  the  right 
and  that  we  were  manifestly  in  the  wrong. 

It  is  a  common  delusion  with  little  men  to  believe 
that  they  are  big  with  wisdom  and  knowledge, 
even  after  they  have  been  ravelled  to  shreds  by 
a  man  of  real  ability.     The   French   Republican 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     321 

officers  were  condescendingly  candid  in  giving  the 
First  Consul  a  high  character,  and  he,  in  turn, 
made  these  self-assertive  gentlemen  feel  abashed 
in  his  presence,  and  sent  them  about  their  business 
without  having  made  any  unnatural  effort  to 
prove  that  they  had  had  an  interview  with  a 
majestic  personality,  who  had  made  articulation 
impossible  to  them.  I  might  give  thousands  of 
testimonies,  showing  the  great  power  this  super- 
man had  over  other  minds,  from  the  highest  mon- 
archical potentate  to  the  humblest  of  his  subjects. 
The  former  were  big  with  a  combination  of  fear 
and  envy.  They  would  deign  to  grovel  at  his  feet, 
slaver  compliments,  and  deluge  him  with  adula- 
tion (if  he  would  have  allowed  them),  and  then 
proceed  to  stab  him  from  behind  in  the  most 
cowardly  fashion.  There  are  always  swarms  of 
human  insects  whose  habits  of  life  range  between 
the  humble  supplicant  and  the  stinging,  poisonous 
wasp. 

It  would  have  been  better  for  the  whole  civilized 
world  had  there  been  more  wisely  clever  men, 
such  as  Charles  James  Fox,  in  public  life  in  this 
and  other  countries  during  Napoleon's  time.  He 
was  the  one  great  Englishman  who  towered  above 
any  of  the  ministers  who  were  contemporary  with 
him  in  this  country,  and  certainly  no  public  man 
had  a  finer  instinct  than  he  as  to  the  policy  Great 
Britain  should  observe  towards  a  nation  that  was 
being  dragged  out  of  the  cesspool  of  corruption 
and  violence  into  a  democratic  grandeur  of  govern- 


322      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

ment  that  was  the  envy  of  continental  as  well  as 
British  antiquarians.  Fox  saw  clearly  the  mani- 
fest benefit  to  both  countries  if  they  could  be 
made  to  understand  and  not  to  envy  each  other. 
In  1802,  Fox  was  received  in  Paris  like  a  highly 
popular  monarch.  The  whole  city  went  wild  with 
the  joy  of  having  him  as  the  guest  of  France. 
He  was  the  great  attraction  at  the  theatres  next 
to  the  First  Consul,  whom  Fox  declared  "was  a 
most  decided  character,  that  would  hold  to  his 
purpose  with  more  constancy  and  through  a  longer 
interval  than  is  imagined;  his  views  are  not  di- 
rected to  this,  i.  e.,  the  United  Kingdom,  but  to 
the  Continent  only."  "I  never  saw,"  he  says, 
"so  little  indirectness  in  any  statesman  as  in  the 
First  Consul."  Had  Fox  been  supported  by 
sufficient  strong  men  to  counteract  the  baneful 
influence  of  the  weeds  who  were  a  constant  peril 
to  the  country  over  whose  destinies  George  III 
and  they  ruled,  we  should  have  been  saved  the 
ghastly  errors  that  were  committed  in  the  name 
of  the  British  people.  The  King's  dislike  to  Fox 
was  openly  avowed.  He  used  to  talk  incessantly  of 
going  back  to  Hanover  whenever  he  was  thwarted 
in  his  disastrous  policy  of  giving  the  country  a 
stab,  or  when  the  inevitable  brought  Fox  into 
office.  Everything  that  emanated  from  the  great 
statesman  was  viewed  with  aversion  and  as  being 
unjust  and  indecent  by  the  royal  Lilliputian, 
while  Fox's  estimate  of  the  King  could  not  be 
uttered  on  a  lower  plane.     He  says,  in  speaking  of 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     323 

His  Majesty,  "It  is  intolerable  to  think  that  it 
should  be  in  the  power  of  one  blockhead  to  do  so 
much  mischief" — meaning,  I  presume,  amongst 
many  other  blunders,  the  mess  he  was  persisting 
in  making  over  American  affairs. 

Had  there  been  capable  statesmen  during  that 
crisis,  the  continent  of  Europe  and  the  vast  do- 
minions of  Great  Britain  would  not  have  been  at 
war  this  day  with  the  pernicious  Power  that  we, 
more  than  any  other  nation,  as  has  been  previ- 
ously stated,  helped  to  create  and  foster. 


IV 

Fox  was  the  only  genius  in  our  political  life  at 
that  time,  while  Pitt  was  a  mere  shadow  in  com- 
parison, though  it  is  fair  to  state  that  the  former 
always  believed  that  he  and  Pitt  would  have  made 
a  workable  combination.  As  to  the  rest,  they 
were  pretty  much  on  the  level  of  the  Lilliputians 
with  whom  the  late  traveller,  Mr.  Lemuel  Gulliver, 
had  such  intimate  and  troublesome  relations. 
The  book  by  the  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's,  Gulliver  s 
Travels,  is  a  perfect  caricature  of  the  political 
dwarfs  of  his  time,  and  vividly  represents  the  men 
who  misruled  this  country  in  George  Ill's  reign. 
But  the  Dean's  laughable  history  of  the  pompous 
antics  of  the  Lilliputians  is  a  picture  which  de- 
scribes the  constitution  of  our  present  administra- 
tion who  are  managing  the  critical  affairs  of  the 


324      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

nation  so  ill  that  disaster  is  inevitable  in  many 
forms,  seen  and  unseen.  The  administrative  ma- 
chine is  clogged  with  experimental  human  odds 
and  ends  who  have  neither  wit,  knowledge,  nor 
wisdom  to  fill  the  posts  allotted  to  them,  and  the 
appalling  thought  is  that  the  nation  as  a  whole 
is  being  blustered  by  the  intriguers  who  are  forcing 
every  national  interest  into  certain  destruction. 
Truly  the  Lilliputians  are  a  plague  on  all  human 
interests,  real  patriotism,  and  capacity:  always 
mischievous,  always  incapable,  just  the  same  now 
as  when,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  their  type 
forced  a  peaceful  and  neutral  Power  into  war 
because  they  refused  to  yield  their  fleet  to  them; 
always  seeing  things  that  do  not  exist,  and  fore- 
boding perils  that  would  never  have  come  but  for 
their  dwarfish  interference.  They  discovered  in 
their  flights  of  frenzy  and  fancy  that  Napoleon 
intended  to  take  possession  by  force  of  the  Danish 
fleet,  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  never  shown 
any  indication,  by  word  or  thought,  of  committing 
an  act  so  unjust  and  hostile  to  his  own  interests. 
A  strong  point  in  his  policy  was  to  keep  Denmark 
on  terms  of  friendly  neutrality.  Moreover,  he 
was  not,  as  many  writers  have  said  (in  loyalty  to 
fashion),  an  unscrupulous  breaker  of  treaties.  It 
was  an  unworthy  act  of  the  British  Government 
to  send  Mr.  Jackson  as  their  representative  to 
bully  the  Danes  into  giving  up  their  fleet  to  the 
British  on  the  plea  that  they  had  learned  by 
reports  through  various  channels  what  Napoleon's 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     325 

intentions  were.  Count  Bernsdorf,  to  whom  Jack- 
son insolently  conveyed  the  nightmare  of  his 
Government,  very  properly  raged  back  at  him 
that  "the  Danish  Government  had  no  such  infor- 
mation, and  that  he  was  adducing  false  reports 
and  mere  surmises  quite  unworthy  of  credit  to 
fill  the  measure  of  British  injustice  in  forcing  Den- 
mark into  a  ruinous  war.  It  was  folly  to  suppose 
that  Napoleon  could  gain  anything  by  throwing 
Norway  and  Denmark  into  an  alliance  with  Eng- 
land and  Sweden."  Then  he  adds,  with  a  digni- 
fied sense  of  wrong,  that  "the  Regent  knew  how 
to  defend  his  neutrality."  "It  might  be  possible," 
retorts  Mr.  Jackson,  "though  appearances  are 
against  that  supposition,  that  the  Danish  Govern- 
ment did  not  wish  to  lend  itself  to  hostile  views; 
still,  it  could  not  resist  France."  Then  Bernsdorf, 
who  had  right  on  his  side,  said  in  accents  of  crush- 
ing anger,  "So!  because  you  think  Napoleon  has 
the  intention  of  wounding  us  in  the  tenderest 
part,  you  would  struggle  with  him  for  priority 
and  be  the  first  to  do  the  deed  ? "  "  Yes,"  responds 
the  distinguished  representative  of  the  upholders 
of  the  rights  of  nations,  "Great  Britain  would 
insist  upon  a  pledge  of  amity."  "What  pledge?" 
demands  the  Count.  "The  pledge  of  uniting  the 
Danish  forces  to  those  of  Great  Britain,"  is  the 
reply. 

It  will  be  seen  that  nothing  short  of  vassalism 
will  satisfy  the  policy  laid  down  by  the  stupid 
emancipationists  of  downtrodden  nations,  as  re- 


326      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

presented  by  the  impressive  effrontery  of  the  noble 
Jackson.  What  a  terrible  piece  of  wooden-headed 
history  was  the  effort  to  force  Denmark  to  break 
her  neutrality  or  make  war  on  her!  They  seized 
Zealand,  and  because  the  Prince  Regent  refused 
to  agree  to  their  perfidy,  they  kept  possession  of 
it.  The  Prince  sent  written  instructions  to  burn 
all  the  ships  and  stores,  but  the  messenger  was 
captured  and  the  faithful  person  to  whom  the 
delivery  of  the  document  was  entrusted  swallowed 
it  (i.  e.,  swallowed  the  instructions).  Copen- 
hagen had  been  bombarded  and  practically  reduced 
to  destruction  by  Nelson,  who  had  settled  with 
the  Danes  on  favourable  British  terms,  one  of  the 
conditions  being  that  they  were  to  leave  with  their 
booty  in  six  weeks.  The  Regent  subsequently 
declared  war  and  outwitted  the  British  designs 
(so  it  is  said)  on  Zealand. 

Castlereagh  sought  the  aid  of  Lord  Cathcart 
to  find  a  dodge  by  which  his  Government  could 
inveigle  the  Danes  into  committing  a  breach  of  the 
Convention,  but  the  latter  stood  firm  by  the  con- 
ditions, and  the  commanders,  being  disgusted 
with  the  whole  affair,  declined  to  aid  their  chiefs 
in  the  Government  in  any  act  of  double  dealing. 
But  they  had  the  Emperor  Alexander  of  Russia 
to  deal  with.  He  offered  to  act  as  intermediary 
between  Great  Britain  and  France  in  order  to 
bring  about  an  honourable  peace.  The  British 
Government  refused,  and  it  is  stated  on  incon- 
trovertible authority  that  Alexander  was  furious, 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War      327 

and  upbraided  the  British  with  having  used  troops 
which  should  have  been  sent  to  Russia's  aid  to 
crush  Denmark.  The  outrage  of  attacking  a  small 
State  which  was  at  peace  and  with  which  she  had 
no  quarrel  was  powerfully  denounced  by  Alexander. 
He  accused  the  British  Government  "of  a  mon- 
strous violation  of  straight  dealing,  by  ruining 
Denmark  in  the  Baltic,  which  it  knew  was  closed 
to  foreign  hostilities  under  a  Russian  guarantee." 
This  caused  Alexander  to  break  off  relations 
with  Great  Britain  and  annul  all  treaties  he  had 
with  her.  Canning  feebly  replied  to  the  Russian 
Emperor's  taunts,  and,  amongst  other  things, 
accused  him  of  throwing  over  the  King  of  the 
Huns.  No  wonder  that  Russia  and  some  of  the 
other  Powers  resented  the  perfidious  conduct  of 
British  statesmen,  employing  British  military  and 
naval  forces  to  overthrow  and  destroy  not  only  a 
friendly  Power,  but  one  of  the  smallest  and  most 
strictly  neutral  States  in  Europe!  Alexander 
jibed  at  them  for  using  their  resources  for  this 
unjust  purpose,  instead  of  sending  them  to  help 
him  when  he  was  being  so  desperately  driven  to 
defeat  by  Napoleon.  What  a  loutish  trick  it  was 
to  imagine  that  any  real  political  or  practical  bene- 
fit could  be  derived  from  it!  The  seizure  of  the 
Danish  fleet  was  a  low-down  act,  for  which  those 
who  were  responsible  should  have  been  pilloried. 
The  reasons  given  could  not  be  sustained  at  the 
time,  and  still  remain  entirely  unsupported  by 
fact.    There  is  no  more  disgraceful  proceeding  to 


328      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

be  found  in  the  pages  of  history  than  our  raid  on 
this  small  and  highly  honourable,  inoffensive,  and 
brave  people. 

This  bad  statesmanship  was  deplorable.  It  set 
the  spirit  of  butchery  raging.  It  made  a  new 
enemy  for  ourselves,  and  in  an  economic  sense 
added  hundreds  of  thousands  to  our  national 
debt,  without  deriving  a  vestige  of  benefit  from 
either  a  military  or  political  point  of  view.  It 
undoubtedly  prolonged  the  war,  as  all  those  squint- 
eyed  enterprises  are  certain  to  do.  It  made  us 
unpopular  and  mistrusted,  and  had  no  effect  in 
damaging  Napoleon's  activities,  nor  of  taking  a 
single  ally  from  him.  There  are  occasions  when 
nations  have  forced  upon  them  cruel  stratagems 
and  alternatives,  revolting  in  their  abominable 
unworthiness,  but  in  the  case  I  am  discussing  I 
have  found  no  substantial  justification,  nor  has 
the  deed  been  backed  up  to  now  or  supported  by 
a  single  real  authority.  Nothing  but  condemna- 
tion still  hangs  round  the  memory  of  those  hapless 
ministers  who  made  the  world  so  full  of  misery. 
I  repeat,  the  greatest  of  all  perils  is  to  have  a 
government  composed  of  men  whose  brains  are 
full  of  kinks,  and  who  do  not  reach  beyond  the 
bounds  of  basing  their  policy  on  the  idea  that  some 
foreigner  or  other  has  designs  on  our  national 
wealth,  our  trade,  or  our  vast  protectorates.  In 
recent  years  that  view  has  been  dissipated,  and 
the  plan  of  broadening  the  national  goodwill  to 
men  has  been  adopted  and  encouraged  by  a  body 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     329 

of  sound,  unpretentious  thinkers  who  have  taken 
pains  to  train  important  gifts  in  the  art  of  good 
government  in  all  its  varied  aspects  and  interna- 
tional complexities.  The  whole  public  have  had 
to  pay  appalling  penalties  in  the  past  because  an 
impulsive  handful  of  the  population  is  of  opinion 
that  self-advertising,  harum-scarum  politicians, 
in  and  out  of  office,  are  the  geniuses  who  make 
and  keep  prosperity.  This  uncontrolled,  emo- 
tional trend  of  thought  comes  in  cycles  and  is 
unerringly  followed  by  bitter  disillusionment.  It 
was  so  during  the  wars  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century,  and  it  is  so  now.  We  always  reflect 
after  the  tragedy  has  been  consummated.  Safe 
and  astute  administrators  are  always  termed  the 
"old  gang"  by  the  political  amateurs  and  the 
calamity  is  that  a  large  public  is  so  often  carried 
away  by  the  flighty  delusions  of  the  real  cranks 
who  style  themselves  the  saviours  of  their  country. 
At  the  present  time  we  have  as  sure  an  example 
as  ever  the  known  world  has  witnessed  of  the 
awful  disaster  the  resignation  of  the  "old  gang" 
has  been  to  the  whole  of  the  Powers  interested 
in  this  world  war,  especially  to  our  own  country. 
We  shall  realize  this  more  fully  by  and  by  when 
the  naked  truth  presents  itself.  The  very  people 
who  are  conspicuously  responsible  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  unity  always  bellow  the  loudest  to  main- 
tain it  after  they  have  been  the  high  conspirators 
in  breaking  it,  aided  by  their  guilty  followers. 
What  bitter  lessons  this  land  of  ours  has  been 


330      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

subjected  to  in  other  days!  For  twenty  years  the 
country  was  kept  in  the  vortex  of  a  raging  war, 
with  no  more  justification  than  giving  Mr.  Jack- 
son instructions  that  the  one  imperative  idea  to 
keep  in  his  mind  was  to  take  possession  of  the 
Danish  fleet.  Nothing  was  to  stand  in  the  way 
of  this  great  adventure,  shameless  though  it  might 
be. 

Lord  Malmesbury  writes  in  his  diary: 

Capture  of  Danish  fleet  by  surprise  on  account  of  most 
undoubted  information  received  from  the  Prince  Regent 
of  Portugal  of  Bonaparte's  intention  to  use  the  Portuguese 
and  Danish  fleets  for  invasion  of  England.  First  hint  of 
the  plan  given  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land. The  Portuguese  refused  the  demand,  and  told  the 
British  Government  of  it ;  the  Danes  accepted,  kept  silence, 
and  afterwards  denied  it. 

The  entry  in  Malmesbury's  diary  has  been  proved 
to  be  a  string  of  pure  inventions,  for  which  he  or 
some  other  informants  are  responsible.  I  have 
said  no  record  has  been  left  to  show  that  Napoleon 
ever  had  any  intention  of  occupying  the  ports  of 
Holstein  or  of  using  the  Danish  fleet  for  the  inva- 
sion of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Members  of 
Parliament  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  members 
of  the  House  of  Lords  proved  beyond  question 
that  ministers'  statements,  taking  the  dates  into 
account,  were  entirely  erroneous.  Canning  de- 
fended the  sending  of  the  expedition,  which  was 
natural,  as  he  was  one  of  the  principal  advocates 
of  it.     But  the  House  would  stand  none  of  his 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     33 * 

tricks  of  evasion  or  repudiation.  He,  like  some 
more  modern  ministers,  ventured  on  the  hazard- 
ous plan  of  deceiving  Parliament,  and,  as  was 
said  at  the  time,  setting  fair  dealing  at  defiance. 
Canning,  like  all  tricksters,  read  extracts  from 
documents,  authentic  and  otherwise,  to  prove  that 
Denmark  was  hostile  to  Britain,  but  when  a  de- 
mand was  made  for  their  inspection,  he  impudently 
refused  to  allow  the  very  documents  he  had  based 
his  case  of  justification  on  to  be  scrutinized,  and 
in  consequence  no  other  conclusion  could  be  ar- 
rived at  than  that  he  was  unscrupulously  mislead- 
ing the  country.  In  fact,  the  Government's  case 
was  so  bad  it  would  not  bear  the  light  of  God's  day! 
I  venture  to  say  that  Mr.  Fox  knew  more  of 
the  character,  political  intricacies,  and  ambitions 
of  the  French  race  than  any  public  man  or  writer 
of  history  of  his  own  time  or  in  subsequent  years. 
He  always  based  his  conclusions  on  a  sound  logical 
point.  He  was  an  accurate  thinker,  who  refused 
to  form  his  judgments  on  light,  faulty,  and  inac- 
curate newspaper  paragraphs  about  what  was 
going  on  around  him.  He  was  opposed  to  Pitt 
and  his  supporters'  policy  of  carrying  on  war  with 
France.  He  wanted  peace,  but  they  wanted  the 
Bourbons,  because  the  Bourbon  section  in  France 
and  the  old  autocracy  in  his  own  and  other  kingly 
countries  were  opposed  to  the  new  ruler  the  masses 
in  France  had  chosen.  He  ridiculed  the  folly  of 
our  mental  nonentities  for  "making  such  a  fuss 
about    acknowledging   the    new  Emperor.     May 


332      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

not  the  people  give  their  own  Magistrate  the  name 
they  choose?"  he  asks.  "On  what  logical  grounds 
did  we  claim  the  right  to  revoke  by  the  force  of 
arms  the  selection  by  the  French  people  of  a  ruler 
on  whom  they  wished  to  bestow  the  title  of  Em- 
peror?" Fox  poured  lavishly  his  withering  con- 
tempt on  those  miscreants  who  arrogantly  claimed 
the  right  to  be  consulted  (for  that  is  practically 
what  their  war  policy  amounted  to)  as  to  who 
the  French  should  put  on  the  throne  and  what  his 
title  should  be.  They  had  acknowledged  Napo- 
leon in  the  capacity  of  First  Consul,  but  they 
shuddered  at  the  consequences  to  the  human 
race  of  having  an  Emperor  sprung  upon  them 
whose  glory  was  putting  kingship  into  obscurity. 
Besides,  an  Emperor  who  combined  humble  origin 
with  democratic  genius  and  ambition  created  by 
the  Revolution  was  a  challenge  to  the  legitimacy 
of  the  Divine  Right  of  Kings  and  a  reversal  of 
the  order  of  ages.  George  III  raged  at  Pitt  for 
including  Fox  in  his  Ministry  when  he  was  asked 
to  form  a  government.  "Does  Mr.  Pitt,"  said 
he,  "not  know  that  Mr.  Fox  was  of  all  persons 
most  offensive  to  him?"  "Had  not  Fox  always 
cheered  the  popular  government  of  France,  and 
had  he  not  always  advocated  peace  with  blood- 
stained rebels?  And  be  it  remembered  the  inde- 
corous language  he  frequently  used  against  his 
sovereign,  and  consider  his  influence  over  the  Prince 
of  Wales.  Bring  whom  you  like,  Mr.  Pitt,  but 
Fox  never." 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     333 

George  III,  King  by  the  Grace  of  God,  relented 
somewhat  in  his  dislike  of  Fox  before  the  latter 
died,  and  his  wayward  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
said  "that  his  father  was  well  pleased  with  Mr. 
Fox  in  all  their  dealings  after  he  came  into  office." 
It  is  an  amazing  form  of  intelligence  that  com- 
mits a  nation  to  join  in  a  war  against  another  for 
having  brought  about  a  revolution  and  for  creat- 
ing ics  first  soldier-statesman  an  "Emperor,"  and 
ranks  him  and  his  compatriots  as  "bloodstained 
rebels."  To  class  Napoleon  as  a  bloodstained 
rebel  and  to  put  him  on  a  level  with  the  Robes- 
pierres  and  the  Dantons  is  an  historic  outrage  of 
the  truth.  He  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
bringing  about  the  Revolution,  though  his  services 
saved  it,  and  out  of  the  terrible  tumult  and  wreck 
superhumanly  recreated  France  and  made  her  the 
envy  of  the  modern  world.  The  great  defender  of 
the  Rights  of  Kings  and  of  the  colossal  European 
fabric  was  appealed  to  by  the  man  whom  George 
III  associated  with  the  "bloodstained  rebels"  to 
come  to  some  common  understanding  so  that  the 
shedding  of  blood  might  cease,  but  that  robust 
advocate  of  peace  (!)  contemptuously  ignored  his 
appeals  to  negotiate.  In  1805  Napoleon  was  raised 
to  the  Imperial  dignity,  and  one  of  his  first  acts 
was  to  write  with  his  own  hand  that  famous  letter 
which  I  have  previously  quoted,  pleading,  with 
majestic  dignity,  for  the  King  of  England,  in  the 
name  of  humanity,  to  co-operate  with  him  in  a  way 
that  would  bring  about  friendly  relations  between 


334     Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

the  two  governments  and  the  spilling  of  blood  to 
an  end.  The  King  "by  the  Grace  of  God"  and 
his  horde  of  bloodsucking,  incompetent  ministers 
insulted  the  French  nation  and  the  great  captain 
who  ruled  over  its  destinies  by  sending  through 
Lord  Mulgrave  an  insolent,  hypocritical  reply  to 
the  French  ministers. 

The  rage  of  war  continued  for  another  decade. 
If  George  III  yearned  for  peace  as  he  and  his 
ministers  pretended,  why  did  the  King  not  write 
a  courteous  autograph  letter  back  to  Napoleon, 
even  though  he  regarded  him  as  an  inferior  and  a 
mere  military  adventurer?  The  nation  had  to 
pay  a  heavy  toll  in  blood  and  money  in  order 
that  the  assumptions  and  dignity  of  this  insensate 
monarch  might  be  maintained,  whose  abhorrence 
of  "bloodstained  rebels"  did  not  prevent  him 
and  his  equally  insensate  advisers  from  plunging 
the  American  colonists  into  a  bloody  rebellion, 
which  ended  so  gloriously  for  them  and  so  disas- 
trously for  the  motherland.  They  had  asked  for 
reforms  that  were  palpably  reasonable  and  neces- 
sary, and  received  insulting  replies  to  their  cour- 
teous demands,  which  compelled  them  to  take 
up  arms  against  the  King  of  England,  with  a  vow 
that  they  would  not  sheathe  the  sword  until  they 
had  won  complete,  independence  from  the  arrogant 
autocracy  that  had  driven  them  to  war. 

They  were  led  by  the  noble  genius  of  George 
Washington  and  Dr.  Franklin,  who  were  in  turn 
strongly  supported  by  and  united  to  colleagues 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     335 

of  high  constructive  and  administrative  talents. 
Their  task  was  long  and  fierce,  but  the  gallant, 
elusive  Washington  led  them  through  the  tre- 
mendous struggle  to  victory,  which  culminated  in 
founding  the  greatest  and  best  constituted  of  all 
republics,  whose  sons  are  fighting  side  by  side 
with  the  descendants  of  those  who  were  forced 
into  fighting  their  own  race,  through  the  malad- 
ministration of  the  King  and  his  guilty  Govern- 
ment, at  the  head  of  which  was  the  genial  but 
ultra-reactionary  Lord  North,  who  was  a  special 
favourite  of  George  because  he  was  accommodat- 
ing; and  indeed,  all  the  King's  friends  were  re- 
actionary and  dangerous  to  the  real  interests  of 
the  state  when  in  power.  The  King's  terrific 
responsibility  for  the  great  calamities  that  befell 
the  country  during  his  reign  can  only  be  absolved 
by  the  knowledge  that  he  was  subject  to  fits  of 
prolonged  lunacy;  in  fact,  it  may  be  said  that  even 
in  his  saner  periods  his  acts  were  frequently  those 
of  an  idiot.  Though  he  cannot  be  accused  of 
lacking  in  integrity,  he  disliked  men  who  were 
possessed  of  that  virtue  coupled  with  enlightened 
views,  having  anything  to  do  with  the  government 
of  the  state.  In  short,  he  was  totally  unsuited 
to  govern  at  any  time,  but  especially  when  the 
atmosphere  was  charged  with  violent  human 
convulsions.  He  loved  lick-spittles,  because  they 
did  his  will  for  value  received  in  various  sordid 
forms,  and,  as  I  have  said,  he  loathed  the  incor- 
ruptible and  brilliant  Charles  James  Fox,  because 


3S6      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

he  refused  to  support  his  fatal  policies  and  that 
of  the  cocksparrow  members  of  his  Government, 
who  from  time  to  time  threatened  the  very  foun- 
dations of  our  national  existence. 

The  more  George  persisted,  the  louder  became 
Fox's  protests.  Posterity  can  never  accurately 
estimate  how  much  it  owes  to  statesmen  who 
acted  with  Fox,  but  the  influences  the  King  had 
behind  him  were  too  formidable  for  Fox  to  grapple 
with.  He  would  have  saved  us  from  the  fratricidal 
war  with  America,  and  from  the  unpardonable 
wickedness  of  involving  the  country  in  the  wars 
with  France,  who  was  fighting  out  her  own  pro- 
digious destiny  on  the  continent,  which  was  no 
concern  of  ours,  except  that  the  sane  policy  of 
the  King  and  his  government  should  have  been 
to  encourage  the  democratizing  of  the  Continental 
States.  It  was  no  love  of  liberty,  or  for  the  people, 
or  for  reforms  of  any  kind,  that  led  George  III 
and  his  satellites  to  wage  war  against  the  man  of 
the  French  Revolution.  It  was  the  fear  of  placing 
more  power  in  the  hands  of  the  people  and  allow- 
ing less  to  remain  in  his  own.  But  the  main  fear 
of  the  King  and  his  autocratic  subjects  was  lest 
Napoleon  would  become  so  powerful  that  he  would 
destroy  the  whole  monarchy  of  Europe!  It  was 
the  view  of  small-minded  men.  Even  Napoleon 
had  his  limitations,  even  if  this  had  been  his  object. 
But  there  was  no  symptom,  except  that  of  panic, 
to  justify  the  assertion  that  he  ever  intended  to 
include  war  on  the  United  Kingdom  in  his  policy. 


Napoleon  and  the  World  War     337 

There  never  was  a  truer  statement  made  by  the 
Emperor  than  "C'est  avec  des  hochets  quon  mene 
les  hommes";  which  is,  "Men  are  led  by  trifles." 
Hence  we  went  to  war  with  him,  and  the  result 
of  it  is  that  the  race  that  he  mistrusted  most  and 
saw  the  necessity  of  keeping  severely  within  limits 
has  risen  up  against  civilization  and  created  a 
world  war  into  which  we  and  our  Allies  have  been 
obliged  to  enter  in  self-defence.  That  is  the 
inevitable  penalty  we  are  having  to  pay  for  the 
action  we  took  in  helping  the  Germans  to  destroy 
France.  I  know  it  is  asserted  it  was  not  France 
but  Napoleon  whose  power  they  aimed  at  breaking, 
but  the  one  could  not  be  broken  without  the  other. 


SEA  SONGS 


3» 


SEA  SONGS 

EXPLANATORY  NOTE 

These  quaint  old  doggerel  songs  are  taken  from 
an  admirable  selection  of  sailor  songs  published 
by  John  Ashton.  The  names  of  the  writers  are 
not  given,  but  their  strong  nautical  flavour  and 
queer  composition  indicate  their  origin.  No  lands- 
man can  ever  imitate  the  sailor  when  the  power 
of  song  or  composition  is  on  him.  He  puts  his 
own  funny  sentiment  and  descriptive  faculty  into 
his  work,  which  is  exclusively  his  own. 

Many  of  the  songs  in  Mr.  Ashton's  book  I  have 
heard  sung  with  great  fervour  in  my  early  days, 
by  a  generation  of  men  ahead  of  my  own,  who 
must  have  long  since  passed  away.  Sometimes 
the  audiences  in  the  forecastle  or  on  deck  were 
appreciative  of  the  efforts  of  the  singer,  but  if  they 
were  not,  they  always  had  a  boot  or  some  other 
handy  implement  ready  to  throw  at  him.  The 
reception  given  to  some  of  my  own  singing  efforts 
in  boyhood  on  these  merry  occasions  was  mixed. 
Sometimes  I  forgot  both  words  and  tune,  and 
had,  therefore,  to  pass  good-humouredly  through 

341 


342       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

the   orthodox   process   of  disapproval    that   was 
regarded  as  part  of  the  entertainment. 

Any  song  or  recital  concerning  Nelson,  Colling- 
wood,  or  the  later  sea  hero,  Charley  Napier,  was 
eminently  popular,  and  to  break  down  in  the 
rendering  of  any  one  of  these  was  an  offence  to 
their  exalted  memories.  The  Sailor's  Grave,  which 
I  regret  is  not  included  in  Mr.  Ashton's  collection, 
was  in  great  demand  when  the  sailors  were  in  a 
solemn  mood.  Both  the  words  and  the  tune  were 
ridiculously  weird,  and  when  it  came  to  the  details 
of  the  hero's  illness,  his  looks  after  death,  the 
sewing  up  in  his  hammock,  and  the  tying  of  two 
round  shots  at  his  feet  for  sinking  purposes,  the 
artist  always  sang  with  his  hands  linked  in 
front  of  him  and  his  eyes  cast  heavenward 
gazing  fixedly  at  a  spot  on  the  ceiling.  Then 
came  the  burial  verse: 

A  splash  and  a  plunge,  and  his  task  was  o'er, 
And  the  billows  rolled  as  they  rolled  before, 
And  many  a  wild  prayer  followed  the  brave, 
As  he  sunk  beneath  a  sailor's  grave. 

This  verse  always  drew  tears  from  the  sentiment- 
alists in  the  audience,  and  if  the  singer  had  pleased 
by  his  efforts  the  song  ended  in  a  roar  of  tumultuous 
applause. 

I  have  thought  it  appropriate  to  add  to  these 
doggerel  rhymes  The  Battle  of  Copenhagen,  The 
Death   of  Nelson,    and    The   "  Arethusa"    These 


Explanatory  Note  343 

tinctly  greater  merit,  but  as  two  of  them  deal  with 
Nelson,  and  as  all  three  have  always  been  most 
popular,  they  may  not  be  out  of  place  here. 


344      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  NILE 

'Twas  on  the  forenoon,  the  first  day  of  August, 
One  thousand  seven  hundred  and  ninety-eight, 
We  had  a  long  pursuit  after  the  Toulon  fleet; 
And  soon  we  let  them  know  that  we  came  for  to  fight. 
We  tried  their  skill,  it  was  sore  against  their  will, 
They  knew  not  what  to  think  of  our  fleet  for  a  while, 
But,  before  the  fray  began,  we  resolved  to  a  man, 
For  to  conquer  or  to  die  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile. 

When  our  guns  began  to  play,  with  many  a  loud  huzza, 
Resolving  to  conquer,  or  die,  to  a  man, 
And  when  our  sails  were  bending,  Old  England  was  de- 
pending, 
Waiting  our  return  from  the  Mediterranean. 
Our  bull  dogs  they  did  roar,  and  into  them  did  pour, 
With  rattling  broadsides  made  brave  Nelson  to  smile, 
Gallant  Nelson  gave  command,  altho'  he'd  but  one  hand, 
British  sailors  jumped  for  joy  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile. 

Night  drawing  on,  we  formed  a  plan 

To  set  fire  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  guns, 

We  selected  them  with  skill,  and  into  them  did  drill, 

We  secured  all  our  shipping,  and  laughed  at  the  fun. 

About  ten  o'clock  at  night,  it  was  a  broiling  fight, 

Which  caused  us  to  muzzle  our  bull  dogs  for  a  while, 

The  V Orient  blew  up,  and  round  went  the  cup, 

To  the  glorious  memorandum  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile. 

Kind  Providence  protected  each  minute  of  the  night, 
It's  more  than  tongue  can  tell,  or  yet  a  pen  can  write, 
For  'mongst  the  jolly  tars,  brave  Nelson  got  a  scar, 
But  Providence  protected  him  thro'  that  cruel  fight. 


Sea  Songs  345 

The  French  may  repine,  we  took  nine  sail  of  the  line, 
Burnt  and  sunk  all  but  two,  which  escaped  for  a  while, 
Brave  Nelson  gave  command,  altho'  he'd  but  one  hand, 
British  sailors  fought  like  lions  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile. 

But  now  the  battle's  o'er,  and  Toulon's  fleet's  no  more, 
Great  news  we  shall  send  unto  George  our  King, 
All  the  Kingdoms  in  Europe  shall  join  us  in  chorus, 
The  bells  they  shall  ring,  and  bonfires  they  shall  blaze, 
Rule  Britannia  shall  be  sung,  through  country  and  town, 
While  sailors,  hand  in  hand,  round  the  can  do  sing, 
Bonaparte  got  the  pledge  of  Europe  for  his  wage, 
And  he'll  ne'er  forget  bold  Nelson  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile. 


346      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 


II 

A  NEW  SONG  ON  LORD  NELSON'S  VICTORY  AT 
COPENHAGEN 

Draw  near,  ye  gallant  seamen,  while  I  the  truth  unfold, 
Of  as  gallant  a  naval  victory  as  ever  yet  was  told, 
The  second  day  of  April  last,  upon  the  Baltic  Main, 
Parker,  Nelson,  and  their  brave  tars,  fresh  laurels  there  did 
gain. 

With  their  thundering  and  roaring,  rattling  and  roaring, 

Thundering  and  roaring  bombs. 

Gallant  Nelson  volunteered  himself,  with  twelve  sail  form'd 

a  line, 
And  in  the  Road  of  Copenhagen  he  began  his  grand  design; 
His  tars  with  usual  courage,  their  valour  did  display, 
And  destroyed  the  Danish  navy  upon  that  glorious  day. 
With  their,  etc. 

With  strong  floating  batteries  in  van  and  rear  we  find, 
The  enemy  in  centre  had  six  ships  of  the  line; 
At  ten  that  glorious  morning,  the  fight  begun,  'tis  true, 
We  Copenhagen  set  on  fire,  my  boys,  before  the  clock  struck 
two. 
With  their,  etc. 

When  this  armament  we  had  destroyed,  we  anchor'd  near 

the  town, 
And  with  our  bombs  were  fully  bent  to  burn  their  city  down; 
Revenge  for  poor  Matilda's  wrongs,  our  seamen  swore 

they'd  have, 
But  they  sent  a  flag  of  truce  aboard,  their  city  for  to  save. 
With  their,  etc. 

For  the  loss  of  his  eye  and  arm,  bold  Nelson  does  declare, 
The  foes  of  his  country,  not  an  inch  of  them  he'll  spare; 


Sea  Songs  347 

The  Danes  he's  made  to  rue  the  day  that  they  ever  Paul 

did  join, 
Eight  ships  he  burnt,  four  he  sunk,  and  took  six  of  the  line. 
With  their,  etc. 

Now  drink  a  health  to  gallant  Nelson,  the  wonder  of  the 

world, 
Who,  in  defence  of  his  country  his  thunder  loud  has  hurled; 
And  to  his  bold  and  valiant  tars,  who  plough  the  raging  sea, 
And  who  never  were  afraid  to  face  the  daring  enemy. 

With  their  thundering  and  roaring,  rattling  and  roaring, 

Thundering  and  roaring  bombs. 


348      Drake.  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

III 

THE  BATTLE  OF  BOULOGNE 

On  the  second  day  of  August,  eighteen  hundred  and  one, 
We  sailed  with  Lord  Nelson  to  the  port  of  Boulogne, 
For  to  cut  out  their  shipping,  which  was  all  in  vain, 
For  to  our  misfortune,  they  were  all  moored  and  chained. 

Our  boats  being  well  mann'd,  at  eleven  at  night, 
For  to  cut  out  their  shipping,  except  they  would  fight, 
But  the  grape  from  their  batteries  so  smartly  did  play, 
Nine  hundred  brave  seamen  killed  and  wounded  there  lay. 

We  hoisted  our  colours,  and  so  boldly  them  did  spread, 
With  a  British  flag  flying  at  our  royal  mast  head, 
For  the  honour  of  England,  we  will  always  maintain, 
While  bold  British  seamen  plough  the  watery  main. 

Exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy  she  lay, 
While  ninety  bright  pieces  of  cannon  did  play, 
Where  many  a  brave  seaman  then  lay  in  his  gore, 
And  the  shot  from  their  batteries  so  smartly  did  pour. 

Our  noble  commander,  with  heart  full  of  grief, 

Used  every  endeavour  to  afford  us  relief, 

No  ship  could  assist  us,  as  well  you  may  know, 

In  this  wounded  condition,  we  were  tossed  to  and  fro. 

And  you  who  relieve  us,  the  Lord  will  you  bless, 
For  relieving  poor  sailors  in  time  of  distress, 
May  the  Lord  put  an  end  to  all  cruel  wars, 
And  send  peace  and  contentment  to  all  British  tars. 


Sea  Songs  349 


IV 

THE  BATTLE  OF  TRAFALGAR 

Arise,  ye  sons  of  Britain,  in  chorus  join  and  sing, 
Great  and  joyful  news  is  come  unto  our  Royal  King, 
An  engagement  we  have  had  by  sea, 
With  France  and  Spain,  our  enemy, 
And  we've  gain'd  a  glorious  victory, 
Again,  my  brave  boys. 

On  the  21st  of  October,  at  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
We  form'd  the  line  for  action,  every  man  to  his  gun, 
Brave  Nelson  to  his  men  did  say, 
The  Lord  will  prosper  us  this  day, 
Give  them  a  broadside,  fire  away, 
My  true  British  boys. 

Broadside  after  broadside  our  cannon  balls  did  fly, 
The  small  shot,  like  hailstones,  upon  the  deck  did  lie, 
Their  masts  and  rigging  we  shot  away, 
Besides  some  thousands  on  that  day, 
Were  killed  and  wounded  in  the  fray, 

On  both  sides,  brave  boys. 

The  Lord  reward  brave  Nelson,  and  protect  his  soul, 
Nineteen  sail  the  combin'd  fleets  lost  in  the  whole; 
Which  made  the  French  for  mercy  call: 
Nelson  was  slain  by  a  musket  ball. 

Mourn,  Britons,  mourn. 

Each  brave  commander,  in  tears  did  shake  his  head, 
Their  grief  was  no  relief,  when  Nelson  he  was  dead; 
It  was  by  a  fatal  musket  ball, 
Which  caus'd  our  hero  for  to  fall. 
He  cried,  Fight  on,  God  bless  you  all, 
My  brave  British  tars. 


35°      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Huzza  my  valiant  seamen,  huzza,  we've  gain'd  the  day, 
But  lost  a  brave  Commander,  bleeding  on  that  day, 
With  joy  we've  gain'd  the  victory, 
Before  his  death  he  did  plainly  see. 
I  die  in  peace,  bless  God,  said  he, 
The  victory  is  won. 

I  hope  this  glorious  victory  will  bring  a  speedy  peace, 
That  all  trade  in  England  may  flourish  and  increase, 
And  our  ships  from  port  to  port  go  free, 
As  before,  let  us  with  them  agree, 
May  this  turn  the  heart  of  our  enemy. 
Huzza,  my  brave  boys. 


Sea  Songs  351 


NELSON  AND  COLLINGWOOD 

Come  all  you  gallant  heroes,  and  listen  unto  me, 
While  I  relate  a  battle  was  lately  fought  at  sea. 
So  fierce  and  hot  on  every  side,  as  plainly  it  appears, 
There  has  not  been  such  a  battle  fought,  no  not  for  many 
years. 

Brave  Nelson  and  brave  Collingwood,  off  Cadiz  harbour  lay, 
Watching  the  French  and  Spaniards,  to  show  them  English 

play, 
The  nineteenth  of  October  from  the  Bay  they  set  sail, 
Brave  Nelson  got  intelligence,  and  soon  was  at  their  tail. 

It  was  on  the  twenty-first  my  boys,  we  had  them  clear  in 

sight, 
And  on  that  very  day,  at  noon,  began  the  bloody  fight. 
Our  fleet  forming  two  columns,  then  he  broke  the  enemy's 

line, 
To  spare  the  use  of  signals,  was  Nelson's  pure  design. 

For  now  the  voice  of  thunder  is  heard  on  every  side, 
The  briny  waves  like  crimson,  with  human  gore  were  dy'd; 
The  French  and  Spanish  heroes  their  courage  well  did  show, 
But  our  brave  British  sailors  soon  brought  their  colours  low. 

Four  hours  and  ten  minutes,  this  battle  it  did  hold, 
And  on  the  briny  ocean,  men  never  fought  more  bold, 
But,  on  the  point  of  victory  brave  Nelson,  he  was  slain, 
And,  on  the  minds  of  Britons,  his  death  will  long  remain. 

Nineteen  sail  of  the  enemy  are  taken  and  destroyed, 
You  see  the  rage  of  Britons,  our  foes  cannot  avoid : 
And  ages  yet  unborn  will  have  this  story  for  to  tell, 
The  twenty-first  of  October,  our  gallant  Nelson  fell. 


352       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

I  hope  the  wives  and  children  will  quickly  find  relief, 

For  the  loss  of  those  brave  heroes,  their  hearts  are  filled 

with  grief, 
And  may  our  warlike  officers  aspire  to  such  a  fame, 
And  revenge  the  death  of  Nelson,  with  his  undying  name. 


Sea  Songs  353 

VI 

GIVE  IT  TO  HIM,  CHARLEY 

Arouse,  you  British  sons,  arouse! 
And  all  who  stand  to  Freedom's  cause, 
While  sing  of  the  impending  wars, 

And  England's  bluff  old  Charley. 
I'll  tell  how  British  seamen  brave, 
Of  Russian  foes  will  clear  the  wave, 
Old  England's  credit  for  to  save, 

Led  on  by  gallant  Charley. 

Our  gallant  tars  led  by  Napier, 
May  bid  defiance  to  the  Bear, 
While  hearty  shouts  will  rend  the  air, 
With,  Mind,  and  give  it  to  him,  Charley. 

Our  jolly  tars  will  have  to  tell, 

How  they  the  Russian  bears  did  quell, 

And  each  honest  heart  with  pride  will  swell, 

For  our  jackets  blue,  and  Charley. 
For  they'll  never  leave  a  blot  or  stain, 
While  our  British  flag  flies  at  the  main, 
But  their  foes  they'll  thrash  again  and  again, 

While  led  on  by  gallant  Charley. 
Our  gallant  tars,  etc. 

Tyrant  Nicky,  you  may  fume  and  boast, 
And  with  threats  disturb  each  peaceful  coast, 
But  you  reckoned  have  without  your  host, 

For  you're  no  good  to  our  tars  and  Charley. 
From  our  wooden  walls  warm  pills  will  fly, 
Your  boasted  power  for  to  try, 
While  our  seamen  with  loud  shouts  will  cry, 

Let  us  give  it  to  him,  Charley. 
Our  gallant  tars,  etc. 

•3 


354       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

For  your  cowardly  tricks  at  Sinope  Bay, 
Most  dearly  we  will  make  you  pay, 
For  our  tars  will  show  you  bonny  play, 

While  commanded  by  brave  Charley. 
For  tho'  brave  Nelson,  he  is  dead 
Our  tars  will  be  to  victory  led, 
By  one  brave  heart  we  have  instead, 

And  that  brave  heart  is  Charley's. 
Our  gallant  tars,  etc. 

England  and  France  they  will  pull  down 

The  Eagle  and  Imperial  Crown, 

And  his  Bear-like  growls  we  soon  will  drown, 

With,  Let  us  give  it  him,  Charley. 
For  while  England  and  France  go  hand  in  hand 
They  conquer  must  by  sea  and  land, 
For  no  Russian  foe  can  e'er  withstand, 

So  brave  a  man  as  Charley. 
Our  gallant  tars,  etc. 

Despotic  Nick,  you've  been  too  fast, 
To  get  Turkey  within  your  grasp, 
But  a  Tartar  you  have  caught  at  last, 

In  the  shape  of  our  tars  and  Charley. 
Then  here's  success  with  three  times  three, 
To  all  true  hearts  by  land  or  sea, 
And  this  the  watchword  it  shall  be, 

Mind,  and  give  it  to  them,  Charley. 

Our  gallant  tars  led  by  Napier, 
May  bid  defiance  to  the  Bear. 
While  hearty  shouts  will  rend  the  air, 
With,  Mind,  and  give  it  to  him,  Charley. 


Sea  Songs  355 


VII 

THE  ARETHUSA 

Come  all  ye  jolly  sailors  bold, 

Whose  hearts  are  cast  in  honour's  mouldr 

While  England  s  glory  I  unfold, 

Huzza  to  the  Arethusa. 
She  is  a  frigate  tight  and  brave, 
As  ever  stemmed  the  dashing  wave* 

Her  men  are  staunch 

To  their  fav'rite  launch, 
And  when  the  foe  shall  meet  our  fire, 
Sooner  than  strike  we'll  all  expire, 

On  board  of  the  Arethusa. 

'Twas  with  the  spring-fleet  she  went  out, 
The  English  Channel  to  cruise  about, 
When  four  French  sail,  in  show  so  stout, 

Bore  down  on  the  Arethusa. 
The  fam'd  Belle  Poule  straight  ahead  did  lie, 
The  Arethusa  seem'd  to  fly, 

Not  a  sheet,  or  a  tack, 

Or  a  brace  did  she  slack, 
Tho'  the  Frenchman  laugh'd,  and  thought  it  stuff, 
But  they  knew  not  the  handful  of  men,  so  tough, 

On  board  of  the  Arethusa. 

On  deck  five  hundred  men  did  dance, 
The  stoutest  they  could  find  in  France, 
We,  with  two  hundred,  did  advance 

On  board  of  the  Arethusa. 
Our  captain  hail'd  the  Frenchman,  ho! 
The  Frenchman  then  cried  out,  hallo ! 

"Bear  down,  d'ye  see 

To  our  Admiral's  lee." 


356      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

"No,  no,"  said  the  Frenchman,  "that  can't  be"; 
"Then  I  must  lug  you  along  with  me, " 
Says  the  saucy  Arethusa. 

The  fight  was  off  the  Frenchman's  land, 
We  forc'd  them  back  upon  their  strand; 
For  we  fought  till  not  a  stick  would  stand 

Of  the  gallant  Arethusa. 
And  now  we've  driven  the  foe  ashore, 
Never  to  fight  with  Britons  more, 

Let  each  fill  a  glass 

To  his  favourite  lass! 
A  health  to  our  captain,  and  officers  true, 
And  all  that  belong  to  the  jovial  crew, 

On  board  of  the  Arethusa. 


Sea  Songs  357 


VIII 

COPENHAGEN 

Of  Nelson  and  the  North, 

Sing  the  day, 
When,  their  haughty  powers  to  vex, 
He  engaged  the  Danish  decks; 
And  with  twenty  floating  wrecks 

Crowned  the  fray. 

All  bright,  in  April's  sun, 

Shone  the  day, 
When  a  British  fleet  came  down 
Through  the  island  of  the  Crown, 
And  by  Copenhagen  town 

Took  their  stay. 

In  arms  the  Danish  shore 

Proudly  shone; 
By  each  gun  the  lighted  brand 
In  a  bold  determined  hand, 
And  the  Prince  of  all  the  land 

Led  them  on. 

For  Denmark  here  had  drawn 

All  her  might; 
From  her  battle-ships  so  vast 
She  had  hewn  away  the  mast, 
And  at  anchor,  to  the  last 

Bade  them  fight. 

Another  noble  fleet 

Of  their  line 
Rode  out ;  but  these  were  nought 
To  the  batteries  which  they  brought, 


358       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 


Like  Leviathans  afloat 
In  the  brine. 

It  was  ten  of  Thursday  morn 

By  the  chime; 
As  they  drifted  on  their  path 
There  was  silence  deep  as  death, 
And  the  noblest  held  his  breath 

For  a  time — 

Ere  a  first  and  fatal  round 

Shook  the  flood. 
Every  Dane  looked  out  that  day, 
Like  the  red  wolf  on  his  prey, 
And  he  swore  his  flag  to  sway 

O'er  our  blood. 

Not  such  a  mind  possessed 

England's  tar; 
'Twas  the  love  of  noble  game 
Set  his  oaken  heart  on  flame, 
For  to  him  'twas  all  the  same, 

Sport  and  war. 

All  hands  and  eyes  on  watch 

As  they  keep; 
By  their  motion  light  as  wings, 
By  each  step  that  haughty  springs, 
You  might  know  them  for  the  kings 

Of  the  deep. 

'Twas  the  Edgar  first  that  smote 

Denmark's  line 
As  her  flag  the  foremost  soared, 
Murray  stamped  his  foot  on  board, 
And  an  hundred  cannons  roared 

At  the  sign. 


Sea  Songs  359 


Three  cheers  of  all  the  fleet 

Sung  Huzza! 
Then  from  centre,  rear,  and  van, 
Every  captain,  every  man, 
With  a  lion's  heart  began 

To  the  fray. 

Oh,  dark  grew  soon  the  heavens — 

For  each  gun, 
From  its  adamantine  lips, 
Spread  a  death-shade  round  the  ships, 
Like  a  hurricane  eclipse 

Of  the  sun. 

Three  hours  the  raging  fire 

Did  not  slack; 
But  the  fourth,  their  signals  drear 
Of  distress  and  wreck  appear, 
And  the  Dane  a  feeble  cheer 

Sent  us  back 

The  voice  decayed;  their  shots 

Slowly  boom. 
They  ceased — and  all  is  wail, 
As  they  strike  the  shattered  sail, 
Or  in  conflagration  pale 

Light  the  gloom. 

Oh,  death — it  was  a  sight 

Filled  our  eyes ! 
But  we  rescued  many  a  crew 
From  the  waves  of  scarlet  hue, 
Ere  the  cross  of  England  flew 

O'er  her  prize. 

Why  ceased  not  here  the  strife, 
Oh,  ye  brave? 


360      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

Why  bleeds  old  England's  band 
By  the  fire  of  Danish  land, 
That  smites  the  very  hand 
Stretched  to  save? 

But  the  Britons  sent  to  warn 

Denmark's  town : 
Proud  foes,  let  vengeance  sleep ! 
If  another  chain-shot  sweep — 
All  your  navy  in  the  deep 

Shall  go  down. 

Then,  peace  instead  of  death 

Let  us  bring ! 
If  you'll  yield  your  conquered  fleet, 
With  the  crews,  at  England's  feet, 
And  make  submission  meet 

To  our  King. 

The  Dane  returned,  a  truce 

Glad  to  bring : 
He  would  yield  his  conquered  fleet, 
With  the  crews,  at  England's  feet, 
And  make  submission  meet 

To  our  King. 

Then  death  withdrew  his  pall 

From  the  day ; 
And  the  sun  looked  smiling  bright 
On  a  wide  and  woeful  sight 
Where  the  fires  of  funeral  light 

Died  away. 

Yet,  all  amidst  her  wrecks 

And  her  gore, 
Proud  Denmark  blest  our  chief 
That  he  gave  her  wounds  relief, 


Sea  Songs  361 


And  the  sounds  of  joy  and  grief 
Filled  her  shore. 

All  round,  outlandish  cries 

Loudly  broke; 
But  a  nobler  note  was  rung 
When  the  British,  old  and  young, 
To  their  bands  of  music  sung 

"Hearts  of  Oak." 

Cheer !  cheer !  from  park  and  tower, 

London  town ! 
When  the  King  shall  ride  in  state 
From  St.  James's  royal  gate, 
And  to  all  his  peers  relate 

Our  renown. 

The  bells  shall  ring !  the  day 

Shall  not  close, 
But  a  glaze  of  cities  bright 
Shall  illuminate  the  night, 
And  the  wine-cup  shine  in  light 

As  it  flows. 

Yes — yet  amid  the  joy 

And  uproar, 
Let  us  think  of  them  that  sleep 
Full  many  a  fathom  deep 
All  beside  thy  rocky  steep, 

Elsinore ! 

Brave  hearts,  to  Britain's  weal 

Once  so  true ! 
Though  death  has  quenched  your  flame, 
Yet  immortal  be  your  name! 
For  ye  died  the  death  of  fame 

With  Riou. 


362       Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 


Soft  sigh  the  winds  of  Heaven 

O'er  your  grave! 
While  the  billow  mournful  rolls 
And  the  mermaid's  song  condoles, 
Singing — glory  to  the  souls 

Of  the  brave. 


Sea  Songs  363 


IX 

THE  DEATH  OF  NELSON 

O'er  Nelson's  tomb,  with  silent  grief  oppressed, 
Britannia  mourns  her  hero  now  at  rest; 
But  those  bright  laurels  will  not  fade  with  years, 
Whose  leaves  are  watered  by  a  nation's  tears. 

'Twas  in  Trafalgar's  bay 
We  saw  the  Frenchmen  lay, 
Each  heart  was  bounding  then, 
We  scorn' d  the  foreign  yoke, 
For  our  ships  were  British  oak, 
And  hearts  of  oak  our  men ! 
Our  Nelson  mark'd  them  on  the  wave, 
Three  cheers  our  gallant  seamen  gave, 
Nor  thought  of  home  and  beauty. 
Along  the  line  this  signal  ran, 
England  expects  that  ev'ry  man 
This  day  will  do  his  duty. 

And  now  the  cannons  roar 

Along  th'  affrighted  shore, 

Our  Nelson  led  the  way, 

His  ship  the  Victory  nam'd ! 

Long  be  that  Victory  fam'd, 

For  vict'ry  crown'd  the  day ! 

But  dearly  was  that  conquest  bought, 

Too  well  the  gallant  hero  fought, 

For  England,  home,  and  beauty. 

He  cried  as  'midst  the  fire  he  ran, 

"England  shall  find  that  ev'ry  man 

This  day  will  do  his  duty!" 

At  last  the  fatal  wound, 
Which  spread  dismay  around, 


364      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

The  hero's  breast  received; 
"Heaven  fights  upon  our  side! 
The  day's  our  own!"  he  cried; 
"Now  long  enough  I've  lived! 
In  honour's  cause  my  life  was  passed, 
In  honour's  cause  I  fall  at  last, 
For  England,  home,  and  beauty. " 
Thus  ending  life  as  he  began, 
England  confessed  that  every  man 
That  day  had  done  his  duty. 


APPENDIX 

SOME  INCIDENTS  OF  NELSON'S  LIFE 

(Chronologically  arranged) 

1758.  On  29th  September  he  was  born. 

1767.  On  26th  December  his  mother  died. 

1 77 1 .  On  1  st  January  a  Midshipman  aboard  the  Raisonable. 

1 77 1 .  On  22d  May  sent  a  voyage  in  merchant  ship  to  West 

Indies,  possibly  as  cabin-boy. 

1772.  On  19th  July  was  Midshipman  on  Triumph. 
J773-  On  7th  May  was  Midshipman  on  Carcass. 
*773-  On  15th  October  was  Midshipman  on  Triumph. 
x773-  On  27th  October  was  Midshipman  on  Seahorse. 
1774.  On  5th  April  becomes  Able  Seaman  on  Seahorse. 
1775-  On  31st  October  is  again  Midshipman  on  Seahorse. 
1776.  On  15th  March  becomes  Midshipman  on  Dolphin. 
1776.  On  24th  September  is  paid  off  from  Dolphin. 

1776.  On  26th  September  becomes  Acting-Lieutenant  of 

Worcester. 

1777.  On  9th  April  passed  examination. 

1777.  On  10th  April  is  Lieutenant  of  Lowestoft. 

1778.  On  2d  July  changes  to  Lieutenant  of  Bristol. 

1778.  On   8th    December   is   appointed   Commander   of 

Badger. 

1779.  On  10th  June  is  made  Captain  of  Hinchinbroke. 

1780.  In  January  joins  expedition  to  San  Juan  and  Gren- 

ada, Nicaragua. 
1780.     On  2d  May  he  is  made  Captain  of  the  Janus. 
1780.     On  1st  September  is  invalided  from  Janus. 

365 


366      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

1780.     On  4th  September  sailed  in  the  Lion  for  home,  and 

1780.  On  24th  November  arrived  at  Spithead  and  went  to 

Bath. 

1 78 1.  On  23d  August  he  became  Captain  of  Albemarle. 

1782.  On  17th  April  sailed  in  Albemarle  to  North  America. 

1783.  On  3d  July  paid  off  from  Albemarle. 

1783.  On  23d  October  visited  France. 

1784.  On  17th  January  back  in  England. 
1784.     On  1 8th  March  Captain  of  Boreas. 

1784.     On  15th  May  at  Leeward  Islands  in  Boreas. 

1787.     On  12th  March  married  Widow  Nesbit. 

1787.     On  4th  July  arrived  Spithead  in  Boreas. 

1787.     On  30th  November  paid  off,  put  on  half  pay,  and 

resided  mainly  at  Burnham  Thorpe  while  on 

shore. 
*793-     On  26th  January  joined  Agamemnon  as  Captain. 
J793-    On  6th  June  sailed  for  the  Mediterranean. 
J793-     On  J3th  July  blockaded  Toulon. 
J793-     On  24th  August  Toulon  is  occupied  and  Agamemnon 

is  ordered  to  Naples.    A  very  full  year's  work. 
1794.    On  4th  April  Siege  of  Bastia  begun. 
1794.    On  22d  May  Bastia  surrendered. 
1794.    On  19th  June  Siege  of  Calvi. 
1794.     On  10th  July  wounded  in  the  right  eye. 

1794.  On  10th  August  Calvi  surrendered. 
J795-     On  13th  March  Hotham's  first  action. 
1795-     On  13th  July  Hotham's  second  action. 

1 795.  On  1 5th  July  sent  with  a  squadron  to  co-operate  with 

the  Austrians  on  the  coast  of  Genoa. 

1795.  On  29th  November  Sir  John  Jervis  took  command  of 

fleet. 

1796.  On  4th  April  he  is  ordered  to  hoist  a  distinguishing 

pennant. 
1796.     On  4th  June  shifted  his  broad   pennant  to  the 

Captain. 
1796.    On  nth  August  appointed  Commodore  of  the  first 

class. 


Appendix  367 

1796.    On  10th  December  joined  the  Minerva. 

1796.  On  20th  December  captured  the  Spanish  frigate  La 

.   Sabina. 

1797.  On  13th  February  rejoined  the  Captain. 

1797.     On  14th  February   joined   the  Irresistible  at  the 

BATTLE  OF  ST.  VINCENT. 
1797.     On  20th  February  is  Rear-Admiral  of  the  Blue. 
1797.     On  17th  March  was  created  Knight  of  the  Bath. 
1797.     On  24th  March  joined  the  Captain  again. 
1797.     On  1st  April  news  of  his  promotion. 
1797.     On  24th  May  hoisted  his  flag  on  Theseus. 
1797.     On  24th  July  his  right  arm  badly  wounded  while 

leading  attack  on  Santa  Cruz,  which  was  repulsed. 

Arm  amputated. 
1797.     On  20th  August  joins  Seahorse,  bound  for  England. 
1797.     On  1  st  September  arrived  at  Spithead,  lowers  his 

flag,  and  proceeds  to  Bath  to  recoup  his  health. 

1797.  On  27th  September  has  the  Order  of  the  Bath  con- 

ferred on  him. 

1798.  On  29th  March  joined  the  Vanguard. 
1798.     On  30th  April  arrived  off  Cadiz. 

1798.  On  7th  June  Troubridge  reinforces  Nelson's  squad- 
ron of  observation  by  adding  ten  sail  of  the 
line. 

1798.  On  17th  June  is  off  Naples  in  search  of  the  French 
fleet. 

1798.     On  1 8th  June  arrives  off  Alexandria. 

1798.    August  1  st  and  2d,  BATTLE  OF  THE  NILE. 

1798.  On  22d  September  arrives  at  Naples  and  is  received 
with  great  rejoicing.  On  the  29th  Sir  William  and 
Lady  Hamilton  give  a  grand  fete  in  honour  of  him. 
The  great  battle  establishes  his  fame  as  the 
greatest  Admiral  in  the  world. 

1798.  On  6th  November  he  is  created  Baron  Nelson  of  the 
Nile  and  Burnham  Thorpe. 

1798.  On  23d  December  he  sailed  for  Palermo  with  the 
King  of  Naples  and  his  family  aboard. 


368      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

1798.  On  26th  December  arrives  at  Palermo  and  is  much 

gratified  by  his  reception  as  a  popular  hero. 

1799.  On  5th  April  he  changed  his  flag  from  blue  to  red. 
1799.     On  8th  June  joins  the  Foudroyant. 

1799.  On  24th  June  arrives  off  Naples  and  cancels  the 
agreement  of  capitulation  of  the  forts. 

1799.  On  29th  June  has  the  aged  Admiral  Prince  Carac- 
cioli  hung  at  the  Minerva's  fore  yardarm  at  the 
instigation  of  Lady  Hamilton  and  the  royal  pro- 
fligates of  Naples.  This  act  remains  a  blot  on  his 
name. 

1799.  July  13th  to  19th  disobeyed  Admiral  Keith's  orders 
to  proceed  to  Minorca. 

1799.  On  29th  July  becomes  Commander-in-Chief  in  the 
Mediterranean. 

1799.     On  8th  August  returns  again  to  Palermo. 

1799.     On  13th  August  he  is  created  Duke  of  Bronte. 

1799.    On  5th  October  sails  for  Port  Mahon,  Minorca. 

1799.  On  22  d  October  again  returns  to  Palermo. 

1800.  On  6th  January  is  officially  notified  that  Lord  Keith 

is  reappointed  to  command  in   Mediterranean, 

which  gives  him  offence. 
1800.     On  1 8th  February  he  captures  Le  Genereux. 
1800.     On  30th  March  also  captures  Le  Guillaume  Tell. 
1800.     On  13th  July  hauls  his  flag  down  at  Leghorn  and 

proceeds  home,  visiting  Trieste,  Vienna,  Dresden, 

and   Hamburg.      Is   received   everywhere   as   a 

monarch. 

1800.  On  6th  November  he  arrives  at  Yarmouth. 

1 80 1.  On  1st  January  becomes  Vice- Admiral  of  the  Blue. 
1 801.     On  13th  January  he  is  separated  from  his  wife. 

1 801.     On  17th  January  hoists  his  flag  on  the  San  Josef. 
1 801.     On  29th  January  Lady  Hamilton  gives  birth  to  his 

daughter  Horatia. 
1801.     On  12th  February  joins  the  St.  George. 
1 801.     On  1 2th  Maich  sails  from  Yarmouth  Roads  for  the 

Sound. 


Appendix  369 

1801.     On  29th  March  joins  the  Elephant. 

1 801.     On  2d  April  the  BATTLE  OF  COPENHAGEN. 

He  rejoins  the  St.  George. 
1 801.     On  5th  May  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  in  the 

Baltic. 
1 801.     On  22d  May  is  created  Viscount  Nelson  of  the  Nile 

and  Burnham  Thorpe. 
1 801.     On  19  th  June  resigns  command  and  sails  in  the  brig 

Kite  for  Yarmouth,  where  he  arrives  on  July  1st. 
1 80 1 .     On  2d  July  is  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 

squadron  defending  the  South-East  Coast. 

1 80 1.  On  1 6th  August  attacked  Boulogne  flotilla  unsuc- 

cessfully. 

1802.  On  10th  April  hauled  his  flag  down  and  took  up  his 

residence  at  Merton. 

1802.  On  26th  April  his  father  died. 

1803.  On  6th  April  his  friend,  Sir  William  Hamilton,  died 

in  Emma's  arms. 

1803.     16th  May,  Commander-in-Chief  again  in  the  Medi- 
terranean. 

1803.     On  20th  May  sailed  from  Spithead  in  Victory. 

1803.     On  2 1st  May  his  flag  shifted  to  the  Amphion. 

1803.     On  8th  July  arrives  off  Toulon. 

1803.  On  30th  July  rejoins  the  Victory  and  keeps  up  a 

steady  blockade  of  Toulon  until  April,  1805,  and 
is  troubled  in  body  and  soul. 

1804.  On  23d  April,  Vice-Admiral  of  WHITE  SQUAD- 

RON. 

1804.  On  1 8th  August  death  of  his  aversion,  the  immortal 

Admiral  La  Touche-Treville. 

1805.  On  17th  January  the  French  fleet  sailed  from  Tou- 

lon, and  falling  in  with  stormy  weather,  their  ships 
were  disabled  and  put  back  for  repairs. 

1805.     On  8th  February  Nelson  arrives  off  Alexandria  in 
search  of  French. 

1805.     On  9th  March  is  off  Toulon  again,  and 

1805.     On  1st  April  is  in  Pula  Roads. 
24 


370      Drake,  Nelson,  and  Napoleon 

1805.     On  4th  April  gets  news  that  the  Frenchmen  have 

sailed  again  from  Toulon,  on  the  30th  April. 
1805.     On  4th  May  came  to  anchor  at  Tetuan. 
1805.     On  9th  May  came  to  anchor  in  Lagos  Bay. 
1805.     On  nth  May  sailed  for  the  West  Indies. 
1805.    On  4th  June  arrived  at  Barbadoes. 
1805.    On  7th  June  arrived  at  Trinidad. 
1805.    On  1 2th  June  arrived  off  Antigua. 
1805.   0Q  1&h  June  sails  for  Europe  in  search  of  the  elusive 

French  fleet. 
1805.     On  18th  July  joins  Collingwood  off  Cadiz. 
1805.     On  15th  August  joins  Cornwallis  off  Brest. 
1805.     On  1 8th  August  arrived  at  Spithead;  joins  Lady 

Hamilton  and  his  little  girl  Horatia  at  Merton. 
1805.     On  13th  September  having  heard  from  Captain 

Blackwood,  who  visited  him  at  Merton,  that  the 

French  fleet  were  at  Cadiz,  he  prepares  to  leave 

Merton. 
1805.     On  15th  September  joins  the  Victory  and  sails  from 

Spithead. 
1805.     On  25th  September  joins  British  fleet  off  Cadiz. 

1805.  On  2 1  st  October,  BATTLE  OF  TRAFALGAR  and 

death  of  Nelson. 

1806.  On  9th  January  buried  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 


INDEX 


Aboukir  Bay,  battle  of  (see  Nile, 

battle  of  the) 
Addington,  Charles,  94 
Alexander   of    Russia,   314,  326, 

327 
Arethusa,  The  (poem),  355 
Armada,  Spanish,  26  et  seq.,  30, 

Asquith,  H.  H.,  301,  306 
Astley,  Sir  Jacob,  122, 125 


B 


Balfour,  A.  J.,  307 

Ball,    Captain,     146,    147,    151, 

153 

Barham,  Lord,  210 

Bathurst,  Lord,  298 

Beatty,  Admiral,  52 

Bendero,  Don  Pedro,  34 

Beresford,  Lord  Charles,  40 

Bernsdorf ,  Count,  325 

Berry,  Captain,  54 

Berthier,  General,  312 

Blackett,  Mr.,  261 

Blackwood,  Captain,  206,  228, 
231.  233,  234 

Blake,  Admiral,  126 

Bonaparte,  Caroline,  295 

Bonaparte,  Elisa,  295 

Bonaparte,  Jerome,  295 

Bonaparte,  Joseph,  136,  162,  295 

Bonaparte,  Louis,  295 

Bonaparte,  Lucien,  295 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon  (see  Napo- 
leon) 

Bonaparte,  Pauline,  295 

Boulogne,  Battle  of  (sea  song),  348 

Brereton,  General,  193,  197,  198, 
202 

Burleigh,  Cecil,  Lord  (see  Cecil) 

Byng,  Admiral  Sir  John,  154,  266 


Cadiz,  Drake's  attacks  on,  19,  26, 

46 
Cadogan,  Mrs.,  205 
Calais,  Armada  at,  28 
Calder,  Sir  Robert,  201,  203,  208, 

218  et  seq.,  267 
Calvi,  siege  of,  53 
Campbell,  Sir  John,  98 
Campbell-Bannerman,  Sir  Henry, 

305 
Canning,  173 
Capua,  siege  of,  131 
Caraccioli,  Prince,  109  et  seq.,  154, 

282 
Carlile,  Christopher,  35,  36,  38,  42 
Carlscrona,  Hyde  Parker's  depar- 
ture to,  85 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  57,  67 
Caroline  (see  Naples,  Queen  of) 
Carribean  Sea,  Drake  visits,  41 
Carthagena,  Drake's  attacks  on, 

I9,4i 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  173,  208,  298, 

304,  305,  307,  326 
Caulaincourt,  314 
Cecil,  Lord,  of  Burleigh,  14,  20, 

32,46 
Champernowne,  Sir  Arthur,  20 
Championnet,  General,  139 
Cobham,  Thomas,  19 
Collingwood,  Admiral  Lord,   18, 

51,  52,  72,  126,  188,  195,  198, 

199,  206,  225,  232,  234,  240, 

242  et  seq.,  255  et  seq. 
Columbus,  Christopher,  38,  41 
Columbus,  Diego,  38 
Copenhagen,  battle  of,  78,  80 
Copenhagen,  Battle  of  (sea  song), 

346 
Copenhagen  (poem),  357 
Corday,  Charlotte,  132 
Corunna,  Drake's  attack  on,  26 


37i 


372 


Index 


Croker,  J.  W.,  105 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  121,  124,  125, 
233 

D 

Danton,  132 

Davis,  Sir  John,  3 

Death  of  Nelson  (poem),  363 

Denmark,  Prince  Regent  of,  325, 

326 
Disraeli,  306 

Domingo,  San  (see  San  Domingo) 
Dominica,  Drake's  arrival  at,  38 
Doughty,  Thomas,  10,  25 
Drake,  Sir  Francis — 

as  prototype,  3 

and  Panama,  4,  44 

and  Elizabeth,  6,  7,  8,  9,  31 

and  War  Fund,  6 

Portuguese  Expedition,  7 

death  at  Puerto  Bello,  7,  48 

on  Pelican,  8,  31 

and  Doughty,  10,  25 

and  discipline,  10,  25 

at  Cadiz,  19,  26,  46 

at  Carthagena,  19,  41 

at  Corunna,  26 

West  Indian  Expedition,  31 

at  Vigo,  34,  36 

and  Spanish  Gold  Fleet,  36 

at  Santiago,  36,  37 

at  Dominica,  38 

at  San  Domingo,  38,  41 

at  Bahamas,  45 

rescues  Roanoke  settlers,  45,  46 

connection    with    East    India 
Company,  47 

Newbolt's  poem  on,  48 

and  Fleet  Tradition,  51 

a  religious  man,  126 

Nelson  compared  with,  174 
Drake's  Drum   (poem),  quotation 

from,  48 
Dresden,  Electress  of,  72 
Dropmore  manuscript,  173 
Dumanoir,  241,  242,  254 


E 


East  India  Company,  47 
Edward  VII  of  England,  70 
Electress  of  Dresden,  72 
Elizabeth  of  England,  6, 7, 8, 9, 18, 

21,  22,  31 

Elliot,  Sir  Gilbert,  113,  114 


Emma,  Lady  Hamilton,  54,  62  et 
seq.,  84, 86,  87  et  seq.,  108,  1 10, 
III  et  seq.,  135, 141,  152,  153, 
154,  211,  212,  222,240 

Enghien,  Due  d',  267,  278  et  seq. 

Erskine,  Sir  James,  139 


Featherstonehaugh,  Sir  Henry,  61 
Fisher,  Admiral  Lord,  52,  84,  172, 

Fitz william,  George,  12 
Foote,  Captain,  282,  283,  284 
Fortescue's  Dropmore  MS.,  173 
Fox,  Charles  James,  284,  293, 304, 
321,  322,  323,  331,  332,  333, 

335 
Francis  Joseph  of  Austna,  316 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  334 
Fremantle,  Admiral,  203 
Frobisher,  Martin,  3,  27,  51,  126 


George  III  of  England,  70,  83, 299, 
307.  332,  333,  334. 335. 336 

George,  Prince  Regent  (after- 
wards George  IV),  76,  77,  86 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  3 

"Give  it  to  him,  Charley  I"  (sea 
song),  353 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  305 

Goethe  (on  beauty  of  Lady  Hamil- 
ton), 64 

Graham,  James,  61 

Graves,  Rear-Admiral,  82 

Gravina,  Admiral,  241 

Greville,  Charles,  61,  62,  63,  68, 

113 
Grey,  Earl,  304 
Grey,  Sir  Edward,  301 
Gulliver's  Travel,  323 


H 


Hallowell,  Captain,  138,  214 
Hamilton,  Lady  (see  Emma,  Lady 

Hamilton) 
Hamilton,  Sir  William,  54,  62,  63, 

64,  65,  77,  89  et  seq.,  113 
Hardy,  Captain  (of  the  Victory), 

81,  109,  220,  227,  229,  231, 

237.  239»  240,  249, 250 


Index 


373 


Hart,    Emily    (afterwards    Lady 

Hamilton),  62 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  3,  6,  12,  13, 

14,  16,  18,  27,  51,  126 
Heine,  Heinrich,  anecdote  of,  315 
Hood,  Admiral,  60 
Horatia  (Nelson's  daughter),  73, 

76,  101  et  seq.,  215,  223,  240 
Hotham,  Admiral,  109 
Howard,  Admiral  Lord,  3,  27 


Inquisition,  Spanish,  3,  9,  21,  24 


Jackson,  Mr.  (British  representa- 
tive to  Denmark),  324,  325, 
330 

Jellicoe,  Admiral,  52 

Jervis,  Admiral  (see  St.  Vincent, 
Earl) 

Joseph  of  Austria  (see  Francis 
Joseph  of  Austria) 


Keats,  Captain,  207 

Keith,  Lord,  130, 131, 150, 153, 155 

Kitchener,  Lord,  172 


Leslie,  General,  121,  125 
Louis  XVIII  of  France,  297 
Louis  Philippe  of  France,  319 
Louis,  Captain,  138,  139 
Lowe,  Sir  Hudson,  298 
Lyon,   Amy    (afterwards   Emma, 
Lady  Hamilton),  61,  62 

M 

Mack,  General,  139 

Malmesbury,  Lady,  113 

Malmesbury,  Lord,  330 

Marat,  132 

Marengo,  battle  of,  154 

Maria  Carolina  (see  Naples,  Queen 

of) 
Marie  Louise  of  Austria,  97,  163 
Marlborough,  Duke  of,  94,  95 
Marmont,  General,  312 


Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  12 
Mary  Tudor,  Queen  of  England, 

22 
Medina-Sidonia,  Duke  of,  5, 27, 28 
Melbourne,  Lord,  98 
Meneval,  Baron  de,  164 
Milas,  General,  154 
Minto,  Lord,  92,  93,  94,  147,  151, 

204,205,  213 
Moreau,  278 
Mulgrave,  Lord,  334 
Muller  (Swiss  historian),  290 
Murat,  136,  137,  162 


N 


Naples,  Ferdinand,  King  of,  ill, 
119,  120,  131,  136,  137,  138, 
139,  i55etseq. 
Naples,  Maria  Carolina,  Queen  of, 
65,  68,  108,  120,  140,  155  et 
seq.,  259 
Napoleon  Bonaparte — 
and  Prussianism,  57,  301 
aphorisms,  60,   122,   125,   199, 

294,  319 
comparison  with  Nelson,  83 
and  Marie  Louise,  97,  163 
his  opinion  of  Nelson,  108 
his  opinion  of  Wellington,  108 
Cromwell  compared  with,  124 
and  the  French  fleet,  185 
and  Villeneuve,  194,  263,  264, 

265,  267,  268 
and  Madame  Walewska,  213 
comparison  of  his  love  letters 

with  Nelson's,  213 
his  Farewell  to  France  (poem), 

276 
as  a  statesman,  124,  125,  277 
and  plots  against  his  life,  278 
and  Pitt,  289  et  seq.,  308 
Muller's  opinion  of,  290 
Wieland's  opinion  of,  290 
and  his  family,  295 
his  return  from  Elba,  297 
his  letter  to  George  III,  299 
his  son's  death,  312 
and  Alexander  of  Russia,  314 
and  Treaty  of  Tilsit,  314 
compared  with  William  II  of 

Germany,  318 
contemporaneous  testimony,  319 

et  seq. 


374 


Index 


Neipperg,  Count,  164 
Nelson,  Rev.  Edmund,  52 
Nelson,  Horatia  {see  Horatia) 
Nelson,  Horatio,  Admiral  Lord — 

and  contemporary  admiration, 
18 

and  Fleet  Tradition,  51 

joins  Raisonnable,  52 

joins  Triumph,  52 

joins  Agamemn on,  53 

loses  right  eye  at  siege  of  Calvi, 

53 
loses  right  arm  at  Santa  Cruz, 

53 
created  K.  C.  B.,  53 
at  the  court  of  Naples,  54,  65 

et  seq.,  133  et  seq.,  155  et  seq. 
at  the  Nile,  54 
created  Baron,  60 
and  gambling  scandal,  69,  143 
returns  home  after  Nile,  69 
and  Lady  Hamilton,  54,  61,  65 

et  seq.,  84,  86,  87  et  seq.,  152, 

205  et  seq.,  211,  212,  224,  228 
at  battle  of  Copenhagen,  80 
compared  with  Napoleon,   83, 

213 
joins  St.  George,  85 
returns  home  in  Kite,  88 
at  Merton,  89,  205  et  seq. 
letter  to  his  niece,  102 
incident  of  gipsy's  prediction, 

104 
and  Caraccioli,  109  et  seq.,  282 
hatred  of  the  French,  127,  166 
at  Toulon,  127 
at  Palermo,  141,  143 
and  starvation  of  Neapolitans, 

144 
and  "cracking  on,"  148 
as   "Duke  of  Thunder,"   165, 

166,  167 
homecoming     via     Magdeburg 

and  Hamburg,  169 
and  Ministers  of  State,  131, 167, 

173  et  seq.,  206  et  seq. 
and  privateering,  175 
sails  to  West  Indies,  192 
returns  to  England,  202 
gift  of  coffin  to,  214 
joins  Victory,  216 
and  Calder,  218  et  seq. 
at  Trafalgar,  221  et  seq. 
last  letters,  222,  223,  227 
last  prayer  before  battle,  227 


death  in  action,  236,  237,  239 

et  seq. 
the  nation's  sorrow,  255  et  seq. 
Collingwood,    compared    with, 

260 
chronological  data,  365 
Nelson     and      Collingwood     (sea 

song),  351 
Nelson,  Lady,  67,  73,  74,  75,  77 
Newbolt,  Sir  H.,  48 
Nile,  Battle  of  the,  54  et  seq. 
Nile,  Battle  of  the  (sea  song),  344 
North,  Lord,  335 
Norton,  Hon.  Mrs.,  98 


O'Meara,  Dr.,  264,  298 

Oquendo,  29 

Orange,  William  the  Silent,  Prince 

of,  21 
Orde,  Sir  John,  177,  178,  179,  190, 

198 

P 

Pahlen,  Count,  87 

Parker,  Sir  Hyde,  78,  79,  8o,  82, 

177 
Parma,  Duke  of,  30 
Pasco,  Yeoman  of  Signals,  231 
Paul  of  Russia,  86 
Philip  of  Spain,  3,  4,  12,  13, 14,  20, 

21,  23,  24,  27,  28,  29 
Pichegru,  278 
Pitt,  William,  125,  208,  289,  291, 

292,  293,  299,  301,  304,  307, 

323.  331,  332 
Poems,  48,  276,  344 
Pole,  Sir  Charles,  88 


Radstock,  Lord,  209,  258 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  45 

Recaldo,  29 

Riou,  Captain,  80 

Roanoke,   settlers  of,   rescue  by 

Drake,  46 
Robespierre,  132 
Rome,  King  of,  312 
Romney,  George,  62 
Rosebery,  Lord,  305 
Rotherham,  Captain,  234 
Ruffo,  Cardinal,  288 


Index 


375 


St.  George,  Mrs.,  114 
St.  Vincent,  Earl,  51,  52.  53,  67, 
83,87,167,178,179,230,231 
St.  Vincent,  Battle  of  Cape,  53 
Salisbury,  Lord,  306 
San  Domingo,  Drake's  attack  on, 

19,  38, 41 

San  Philip,  46 

Santa  Cruz,  Admiral,  5,  24,  26,  28 
Santa  Cruz,  action  at,  53 
Santiago,  Drake's  attack  on,  36, 

37       , 
Sardanapalus,  132 
Scott,  Dr.,  240 
Sea  songs,  339 
Seymour,  Admiral  Lord,  27 
Sidmouth,  Lord,  217 
Smith,  Sir  Sydney,  167 
Southey,  Robert,  119,  167 
Strachan,  Sir  Richard,  242,  254 
Suckling,  Captain  Maurice,  52 


Thiers,  M.,  185,  309 

Thurn,  Count,  no 

Tierny,  304 

Touche-Treville,  Admiral  la,  128 


Trafalgar,  Battle  of,  30, 221  et  seq. 
Trafalgar,  Battle  of  (sea  song),  349 
Troubridge,  Admiral,  69,  88,  131, 

133,  134,  138,  143,  I5L  229, 

230 

U 

Ulloa,  San  Juan  d',  catastrophe 
of,  12 


Valdes,  Don  Pedro  de,  5 

Verde,  Cape  de,  pursuit  of  Spanish 

to,  36 
Vigo,  Drake  s  attack  on,  34,  36 
Villeneuve,    Admiral,    107,    183, 

184,  194,  195,  201,  206,  221, 

225,  241,  258,  263,  264,  265, 

266,  268 

W 

Walewska,  Madame,  213 
Washington,  George,  334 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  26,  105,  298 
Wieland  (German  historian),  290, 

291 
William  II  of  Germany,  40,  316, 

3i8 


A  Selection  from  the 
Catalogue  of 

C.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Complete  Catalogues  sent 
on  application 


HEROES  OF  THE  NATIONS 


NELSON.     By  W.  Clark  Russell. 

GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.      By  C. 
R.  L.  Fletcher. 

PERICLES.       By  Evelyn  Abbott. 

THEODORIC    THE  GOTH.      By 
Thomas  Hodgkin. 

SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY.    By  H.  R. 
Fox-Bourne. 

JULIUS  CESAR.       By  W.  Ward 
Fowler. 

WYCLIF.    By  Lewis  Sargeant. 

NAPOLEON.         By  W.  O'Connor 

Morris. 

HENRY  OF  NAVARRE.       By  P. 
F.  Willert. 

CICERO.  By  J.  L.   Strachan- 

Davidson. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.     By  Noah 
Brooks. 

PRINCE   HENRY    (  OF  PORTU- 
GAL)    THE    NAVIGATOR. 
By   C.  R.  Beazley. 

JULIAN    THE     PHILOSOPHER. 
By  Alice  Gardner. 

LOUIS  XIV.       By   Arthur  Hassall. 

CHARLES  XII.  By  R.  Nisbet 

Bain. 

LORENZO    DE'   MEDICI.         By 
Edward  Armstrong. 

JEANNE    D'ARC.     By   Mrs.    Oli- 
phant. 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS.  By 
Washington  Irving. 

ROBERT  THE   BRUCE.     By  Sir 
Herbert  Maxwell. 

HANNIBAL.      By.    W.   O'Connor 
Morris. 

ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.    By  William 
Conant  Chirch. 

ROBERT  E.    .]*EE.       By    Henry 
Alexander  White. 

THE  C1D  CAMPEADOR.     By  H. 
Butler  Clarke. 

8ALADIN.  By  Stanley  Lane-Poole. 

BISMARCK.  By  J.   W.    Headlam. 


ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT.     By 

Benjamin  I.  Wheeler. 


CHARLEMAGNE, 
Davis. 


OLIVER    CROMWELL. 
Charles  Firth. 

RICHELIEU, 
kins. 


By  H.  W.  a 

By 

By  James  B.  Per* 
By  Rob- 


DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 
ert  Dunlap. 

SAINT    LOUIS  (  Louis   IX.  of 

France  ).      By  Frederick  Perry. 

LORD  CHATHAM.       By  Walford 
David  Green. 

OWEN  GLYNDWR.      By  Arthur 
G.  Bradley. 

HENRY  V.     By  Charles  L.  Kings- 
ford. 

EDWARD  I.       By  Edward  Jenks. 

AUGUSTUS  CESAR.       By  J.  B. 
Firth. 

FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.    By 
W.  F.  Reddaway. 

WELLINGTON.  By  W.  O'Connor 
Morris. 

CONSTANTINE    THE    GREAT. 
By  J.  B.  Firth. 

MOHAMMED.   D.  S.  Margoliouth. 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON.        By 
J.  A.  Harrison. 

CHARLES  THE  BOLD.  By  Ruth 
Putnam. 

WILLIAM    THE  CONQUEROR. 
By  F.  B.  Stanton. 

FERNANDO   CORTES.        By  F. 
A.  MacNutt. 

WILLIAM  THE  SILENT.    By  R. 

Putnam. 
BLUCHER.    By  E.  F.  Henderson. 

ROGER  THE  GREAT.         By  B. 
Curtis. 

CANUTE  THE  GREAT.       By  L. 

M.  Laraoc 
CAVOUR.     By  Pietro  Orsi. 

DEMOSTHENES.  By  A.  W.  Picfc 

ard-  Cambridge. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS 


GREECE.     Prof.  Jas.  A.  Harrison. 

ROME.     Arthur  Oilman. 

THE  JEWS.     Prof.  James  K.  Hos- 

mer. 
CHALDEA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
GERMANY.     S.  Baring-Gould. 
NORWAY.      Hjalmar  H.  Boyesen. 
SPAIN.      Rev.   E.   E.    and   Susan 

Hale. 
HUNGARY.     Prof.  A.  Vamb6ry. 
CARTHAGE.      Prof.    Alfred  J. 

Church. 
THE  SARACENS.        Arthur  Gil- 
man. 
THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.   Stanley 

Lane-Poole. 
THE    NORMANS.        Sarah  Orne 

Jewett. 
PERSIA.      S.  G.  W.  Benjamin. 
ANCIENT  EGYPT.       Prof.  Geo. 

Rawlinson. 
ALEXANDER'S  EMPIRE.     Prof. 

J.  P.  Mahafiy. 
ASSYRIA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
THE  GOTHS.     Henry  Bradley. 
IRELAND.     Hon.  Emily  Lawless. 
TURKEY.     Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
MEDIA,  BABYLON,  AND  PER- 
SIA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
MEDIEVAL  FRANCE.         Prof. 

Gustave  Masson. 
HOLLAND.  Prof.   J.   Thorold 

Rogers. 
MEXICO.     Susan  Hale. 
PHOENICIA.     George  Rawlinson. 
THE.    HANSA     TOWNS.     Helen 

Zimmern. 
EARLY  BRITAIN.      Prof.  Alfred 

J.  Church. 
THE      BARBARY       CORSAIRS. 

Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
RUSSIA.     W.  R.  MorfilL 
THE  JEWS  UNDER  ROME.     W. 

D.  Morrison. 
SCOTLAND.     John  Mackintosh. 
SWITZERLAND.       R.  Stead  and 

Mrs.  A.  Hug. 
PORTUGAL.     H.  Morse-Stephens. 
THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.    C. 

W.  C.  Oman. 
SICILY.     E.  A.  Freeman. 
THE       TUSCAN      REPUBLICS. 

Bella  Duffy. 
POLAND.    W.  R.  Morfill. 
PARTHIA.     Geo.  Rawlinson. 
JAPAN.     David  Murray. 
THE    CHRISTIAN    RECOVERY 

OF  SPAIN.     H.  f*»  Watts. 


AUSTRALASIA.     Greville  Tregar- 

then. 

SOUTHERN  AFRICA.  Geo.  M. 
Theal. 

VENICE.     Alethea  Wiel. 

THE  CRUSADES.        T.  S.  Archet 

and  C.  L.  Kingsford. 
VEDIC  INDIA.     Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
BOHEMIA.     C.  E.  Maurice. 
CANADA.    J.  G.  Bourinot. 

THE  BALKAN  STATES.  William 
Miller. 

BRITISH  RULE  IN  INDIA.       R. 

W.  Frazer. 
MODERN  FRANCE.       Andre1  Le 
Bon. 

THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE.     Alfred 

T.  Story.     Two  vols. 
THE  FRANKS.       Lewis  Sergeant. 
THE  WEST  INDIES.       Amos   K. 

Fiske. 
THE  PEOPLE    OF     ENGLAND. 

Justin  McCarthy,  M.P.      Two 

vols. 
AUSTRIA.     Sidney  Whitman. 
CHINA.     Robt.  K.  Douglass. 
MODERN  SPAIN.     Major  Martia 

A.  S.  Hume. 
MODERN  ITALY.        Pietro  OrsL 
THE     THIRTEEN     COLONIES. 

Helen  A.  Smith.     Two  vols. 
WALES  AND  CORNWALL.  Owne 

M.  Edwards. 
MEDIAEVAL  ROME.  Wm.  Miller. 
THE  PAPAL  MONARCHY.   Wm. 

Barry. 
MEDIEVAL  INDIA.  Stanley 

Lane-Poole. 

BUDDHIST  INDIA.  T.  W.  Rhys- 
Davids. 

THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN  RE- 
PUBLICS. Thomas  C.  Daw- 
son.    Two  vols. 

PARLIAMENTARY  ENGLAND. 
Edward  Jenks. 

MEDIEVAL  ENGLAND.  Mary 
Bateson. 

THE  UNITED  STATES.  Edward 
Earle  Sparks.     Two  vols. 

ENGLAND:  THE  COMING  OF 
PARLIAMENT.  L.  Cecil  Jane. 

GREECE  TO  A.  D.  14.  E.  S. 
Shuckburgh. 

ROMAN  EMPIRE.     Stuart  Jones. 

SWEDEN  AND  DENMARK, 
with  FINLAND  AND  ICE- 
LAND.     Jon  Stefansson- 


/ 


DATE  DUE 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.A. 

